Battlestar Therion: Surviving Destruction V2
by Hooah134
Summary: The Colonial Battlestar Therion fights to survive the fall of the Twelve Colonies. With limited resources and an unrelenting enemy the odds are stacked against them. Reviews greatly appreciated


Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own any of the content of Battlestar Galactica. This Story is purely for entertainment purposes. Enjoy!

TWELVE COLONIES OF KOBOL 53 DAYS BEFORE THE ATTACK

It had been nearly forty years since the end of the massive conflict known as the Cylon war. The event that had unified the Twelve Colonies of Kobol under the articles of colonization. The Colonials had prospered greatly in those forty years, experiencing massive technological advancement and population growth. The Colonial military was as large and powerful as it had ever been. Despite those in the government regarding the Cylon threat as a practical non-issue. Officially the Colonial Government had had no contact with the Cylons in forty years. Unofficially was another story however. In response to a failed black ops mission nearly six years ago the colonial military had begun a buildup of arms. Which had led to the start of the CNP program four years earlier by Doctor Gaius Baltar. The networked computer system was promised to improve combat efficiency, navigational jump distance and speed, and performance three fold. However many in the Admiralty doubted his claim, their distrust of a networked computer system running deep. Admiral Nagala had been tasked with running a series of war games to test the efficiency of the CNP program. The Third Fleet had designated two battlestar groups to split into two task forces, one with the CNP and the other without. Baltar was accusing the Military of stacking the odds by assigning two admirals to lead the force who both viewed the CNP as a potential weakness. He was accusing the CNP lead force of willingly letting themselves be defeated in the simulated combat scenarios that had so far been run. As a result of his accusations the President had then ordered the entire Third fleet to take part in the exercise. Which meant half the ships in the third fleet had undergone a one month refit to install the CNP and begin preparations for the war game. Ships shore leave was cancelled, units were brought out of maintenance down cycles and readied for deployment. Ships such as the Battlestar Therion which had just finished a four month shakedown cruise after undergoing a massive overhaul and systems upgrade had been rushed to full readiness status. The ship's crew which had been preparing to go on home on shore leave had been told to postpone their plans for the next month. Much to the displeasure of everyone aboard. But like the professionals they prided themselves on being they quickly went about making the ship ready for deployment. The Third Fleet was structured exactly like the fifth fleet. With over 750 ships assigned or attached, the Third and Fifth fleets were the major combatant command fleets. In the event of a war breaking out they would be the fleets to surge across the armistice line and take over the fight from the second fleet which had less than half of their numbers but the same amount of battlestars. The Second fleet was designed to use wolf pack strategies and delaying actions until the third and fifth fleet could mobilize for a major offensive. Much like the fourth fleet which was designed for rapid deployment and light action conflicts mainly anti-piracy and anti-terrorism, in the event of a war with the Cylons they would be rapidly deployed to reinforce the second fleet and launch small scale counterattacks and make initial strikes and intelligence collection into Cylon territory. The fourth fleet had mainly Valkyrie type battlestars and older generation retrofitted Galactica class battlestars. They numbered less than four hundred total ships as well. The First fleet was the home defense fleet of all of the Colonies. The ships of the First Fleet were kept at a constant state of readiness and actively patrolled the space and surrounding moons and planets that also orbited the colonies. The First Fleet was the only unit that rivaled the Third and Fifth Fleets numbers. While still holding the same number of battlestars, the fleet had nearly triple the amount of destroyers and cruisers. In total the Colonial Fleet boasted over four thousand vessels capable of offensive combat with an additional three thousand support ships which held basic defensive capabilities. Readying the Entire Third fleet was something usually done as a pre-planned exercise once every five years. Doing an unplanned exercise had presented the fleet with several logistical and administrative problems but the Admiralty had seen it as a chance to prove the fleet was capable of rapidly deploying to take the fight to the Cylons and push the fight away from the colonies. Each and every ship in the fleet had burned countless man hours preparing the fleet for deployment. The crews sometimes working double shifts, with support ships sometimes working triple. But it had been done and the Third fleet was ready for deployment four days ahead of schedule.

CYRANNUS ASTEROID BELT

As silent as a hunter stalking its prey the massive Colonial Third Fleet slid through the empty space near the Cyrannus asteroid belt. In total there were 750 ships assigned to the monster that was the Third fleet, all heavily armed and well protected by layer upon layer of defenses. Each one designed to be better than the one behind it. It was here that Nagala planned to prove to the Admiralty and the Adar administration that Fleet efficiency didn't suffer without the CNP. He was a Veteran of the Cylon War and extremely distrustful of networked computer systems. The Third Fleet had essentially been split into two task forces, one with the CNP being designated task force Gold with the Task force without being designated Task Force Blue. Nagala was not in command of either force, instead he was the overall force observer controller. He had chosen his very best Strike group commander task force Blue. However none of his other strike group Admirals publicly supported the CNP so the President had selected an Admiral William Ganter to lead task force Gold. Ganter and Adar grew up on Picon together and had gone separate ways after high school but had remained in touch. Ganter had been promoted to Admiral only three years prior. Nagala already knew Ganter was going to fail miserably, he suspected he had been promised a high paying positions in Baltar's company and fully supported the CNP program . He had pitted them against each other with the full expectation that they would both do their best. He was not just interested to see how the CNP vs Non-CNP force performed but how the two other Admirals performed. He was curious if an Admiral who had advanced through the support services could actually command a multi-strike group force.

As the battlestar Atlantia, the flagship of Admiral Nagala, fired its weapons at targets down range he continued to observe the overall battle. The battlestar Achilles was maneuvering away from the fleet to simulate a boarding action by Marines from the opposing forces Battlestar Trition. Another twenty four battlestars and two hundred other ships were engaged in mock battles, as vipers dogfighted all around the massive ships. Raptors were recording every second of the massive war game, for analysis by Fleet and industry leaders later. Over the Colony of Caprica the peace and beauty of the planet seemed almost unreal as ships came and went.

As the massive war games exercise continued many people watched with peaked interest. The President had staked a lot on Admiral Ganter. He had initially been accepting of the original report that the CNP had underperformed and was willing to give the Admiralty their way. But Doctor Gaius Baltar had used his celebrity status to rile the people against him and the military. Even a few quorum delegates had said things to pressure him into another test. So he had been forced to relent to the public pressure. But to him it appeared that this exercise was another failure by the CNP. 'A waste of money, and time' He thought as the news commentators reported on the fifth major simulated battle. Task Force Gold had been tricked into an ambush by Task Force Blue led by Rear Admiral Keyes. The six battlestars involved had suffered a devastating defeat by the non-CNP using ships.

Doctor Gaius Baltar was fuming as he watched the Caprican News display battle telemetry from a raptor that showed the CNP force being wiped out. He had no doubt his programming was excellent and vastly superior to anything else. He blamed the failure of the CNP Task Force on incompetence and poor leadership. There was simply no way his program that he had devoted years to working on was failing. He was nearing a panic as he realized how much money he would lose if the fleet pulled the program from their frontline units.

"Gaius how long would it take for the fleet to disinstall the CNP from its ships" Asked his partner who was lying next to him fully naked

"I don't know, depends on size really. But for the battlestars a month at most" He replied not noticing the worried look she got.

36 DAYS LATER DELPHI CITY CAPRICA

A young woman by the name of Haley Aaron slowly rose from her seat on the charter bus that was taking her home to her family. She was in civilian clothes, wearing a Caprican buccaneers sweater and jeans. Her blonde hair fell just a few inches past her shoulders as she stood up. She was excited to be home again and see her family. She hadn't seen them in over six months since the Therion had been ordered to take part in Nagala's war games. The buildup to the War game exercise had been crazy, but she had accumulated over 200 hours of flight time in a single month leading up to the start of the exercises alone. Another 200 during the war games. She was only a year out of flight school and already she had over 700 hours of flight time in a raptor. She was proud of herself and how far she had come since she had graduated from the Fleet Academy. Her social life, like many in the academy had been pretty lame, with most of her time taken up studying and practicing. But once she got to flight school things changed. She got more close to her sister and her son than anything. She couldn't wait to see her nephew Scott. He was just seven years old, son to her older sister Amy. The two sisters were closer than most sisters their age having gone through things most people never have or ever would. Haley had graduated from the fleet academy with top honors ranked at number two hundred and four of a class of ten thousand, like many on the Therion had. Her sister had graduated eight years ahead of her but was impressed with her ability to lead so far. She had even gone as far to call her a natural. Her sister was currently assigned to the battlestar Olympic as the ships Tactical Operations Officer. Haley had chosen to fly Raptors, to the surprise of no one who knew her well. As the bus stopped outside the Station in Delphi she paid the driver and stepped off. The smell of fresh air and the ocean breeze immediately filled her nostrils. She immediately heard the shouts of her nephew Scott as he ran up to her from a few feet away and hugged her. Laughing she gracefully picked him up and kissed his cheek, making the boy smile ear to ear as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I missed you Aunt Haley, hurry up! Come on! We got pizza. With everything on it too! Our favorite kind!" Said Scott as he tugged at her arm dragging her along. "Okay, okay I'm coming" said Haley as she hugged her sister. The ride to her sister's house where her dad was staying was filled with smiles, laughs and for seven year old Scott lots of tickling from his favorite Aunt. Haley was excited to be able to spend two weeks with her family on shore leave while the Therion underwent an expedited maintenance period.

COLONIAL FIFTH FLEET

FLEET ACADEMY TRAINING STAR

The Fleet Academy Training star known as the Citadel cruised in formation with the massive colonial fifth fleet. Admiral Corman had ordered an Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise to test the fleets readiness much like the Third fleet. But he had given his units even less time to prepare, only ten days, which was what the battle plan called for. Here all 712 ships of the Fifth Fleet that had met the timeline were assembled and ready for whatever mission the Admiral assigned them. The other ships were either undergoing refit or were down with maintenance problems. Their training exercise was to respond to a simulated terrorist attack on multiple locations throughout a Colony. On the surface of the planet elements of the Colonial Army's 1st Infantry Division were simulating the actions of the enemy, and acting as civilians. The Fleets three hospital stars were simulating mass casualty drills. Aboard the Citadel, Ensign Cody Carroll was preparing to go through his third Viper test qualification. He had aced his last two and felt even more confident about this one. Colonial Vipers from the Battlestar Orion were serving as their OPFOR, although the scenarios had them at a distinct disadvantage. Cody had enlisted in the colonial fleet first. Serving in the fleet's security forces on the moon of Ataria. He had earned his two year degree from an accredited online university on nearby Virgon and had applied to the fleet Academy's green to gold program. He was accepted within the first two weeks of his application being submitted. Going to the academy with prior service had set him apart from the rest of his peers and given him a leg up on most of his classmates. He had excelled in his studies at the academy and had graduated 178 in his class. He elected for flight school after the academy and was chosen to be a viper pilot. Now he was getting ready to earn his wings. Growing up in the city of Oasis on Caprica he had gotten in trouble his freshman year of high school and had been sent to live with his grandfather in the countryside. There he got his life turned around quick. Quickly bringing his grades up to an almost flawless record. He won the districts championship in track and had gone on to planetary nationals where he lost to another district. He came in third in the race. He received several scholarships and free ride admissions to universities and colleges but his heart had been set on the fleet since he was twelve. Now he was making his dream come true.

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP BASTION - 12 MILES OUTSIDE DELPHI

"OORAH!" shouted the Marines as they continued their deadly game of marsh pit. Soon over two companies of men were involved in the brutal game in the mud pits behind the tank lager. Many would later find themselves in the Emergency room for minor cuts and bruises. When asked why the Brass never bothered to stop the deadly game they had only one response: You'd have to be a Marine to understand the kind of bond beating each other up creates. General Stanley Griggs watched as his Marines continued on with their game. As he turned to go inside he couldn't help but remember when he too had played those games. Stanley Griggs had been too young to fight in the Cylon war being born two years before it had ended. He had fought in the SLA campaign a decade before and been in the Colonial Marine Corps Special Operations Division before that. The moments when all was quiet before a battle were the perfect moments for that very game. It was a feeling of letting loose and getting to beat the shit out of anyone you didn't like, as long as it wasn't too bad. He had loved carrying the rucksack on his back, but more importantly he loved wearing the uniform. He loved what it represented. As the general walked inside waiting by the entrance to his office was an agent from the Military center for Intelligence. The MCI agent stood up and shook his hand and said in a very serious voice heavy with experience. "General we have a lot to talk about so let's get to it." "After you their young man" Said the 42 year old General wishing he was a young lieutenant again.

CAPRICAN FLEET SHIPYARDS - 6 DAYS UNTIL THE CYLON ATTACK

The hulls of the mighty ships could be seen as they lay in their docks, some were to receive the upgrade to the CNP while others acting on Admiral Nagala's strict orders weren't. Of the 752 ships in the Third fleet 110 now had the CNP system Installed. The Admiral had ordered all ships that had installed the CNP in the fleets five strike groups to un-install it. Now only logistical support ships had the system. Admiral Nagala was taking steps to ensure that number didn't climb and most importantly reduce. The CNP task force had failed miserably during the war games being soundly defeated by Admiral Keyes Task force. Admiral William Ganter had risen through the ranks as a logistical administrative officer. The President had insisted that the commander of the CNP task force be a supporter of the program so Nagala had chosen him. Despite the fact that he had never led a multi battlestar strike group task force before. The man had been embarrassed by his leadership and sound defeat in the war games and as a result had submitted his resignation to the President. Admiral Keyes on the other hand was a tactical genius and had proven it in the war games. Now Admiral Corman was considering banning the CNP program from all frontline combat units and relegating the CNP to logistical and administrative support functions only. Doctor Gauis Baltar had accused him of being afraid of computers, and wanting to keep the Colonies in the Stone Age and finally a coward. The whole fleet knew it was only because his company was losing almost twenty billion cubits as a result of the Third Fleets numbers. Admiral Willington of the Fifth fleet was rumored to be considering the same thing, much to Baltar's fright. Much of the Colonial Fleet was now rumored to be considering using the CNP only for navigation, logistical and Administrative use. The mistrust of a Networked computer system ran deep in the veterans of the Cylon war. Currently only the Fourth and Second Fleets had fully implemented the CNP program to their forces. The First and Third fleet and fifth fleet were supposed to receive it by the end of the year. Now that plan was on hold pending an official review by the Colonial Militaries IG. They had paid an enormous amount for the program that had been a disappointment, now they were looking to see if they had a legal case against the company.

The Atlantia, pride of the Colonial fleet and flagship of Admiral Nagala, disembarked from its moors and began to head for Virgon, the Atlantia while based at the Third fleet headquarters at the Virgos shipyards had stopped at Caprica with the Third fleet units based there to refuel and give its crew some shore leave. In six days it would be at Virgon and would resume its duties as a Flagship. Aboard the Atlantia Admiral Nagala sat in his quarters and read the latest report from 1ST SMRG. Officially the unit didn't exist. There were no records of them paper or electronic. They operated under the guise of system mapping and exploration. In their last mission they had tracked a Cylon raider to what they believed to be a staging area for a potential Cylon invasion, their report had him worried. A total of twenty four Baseships were there. The report had immediately set off alarms throughout the militaries higher command leadership, but after a nearly three hour meeting with the president, he had simply ordered them to remain vigilant and keep an eye on them. Nagala suspected he was scared that if they upped their alert levels accordingly the Cylons would suspect a Unit had crossed the line and gained some sort of useful Intelligence, and they would respond with an attack. He thought it was foolish.

5 days later

A Young Marine Specialist walked into the chow hall and sat down with his friends for Taco night at the base local dining facility

A Nurse stitched a Marines cut as she flirted with him in the emergency room.

A female reporter reported the decommissioning ceremony of the Galactica was due to take place tomorrow.

A woman went jogging in the park Caprica City.

A Pilot waves goodbye to her Nephew as she loads up to return to her ship

A young boy looks up into the night sky and wonders if the cylons will ever come back after reading about them in his history class that day.

An Admiral lies down to sleep and wonders if he'll awake the next day.

CAPRICAN FLEET SHIPYARDS - 4 HRS BEFORE THE ATTACK

The 4th strike Group of the Colonial Fourth Fleet had been ordered to rendezvous at a position near the Armistice line. All 125 ships were there except the Columbia still at Virgon. The battlestar Solstice was the lead ship. The only ships at the Caprican Fleet shipyards were independent units that operated on their own. Mostly cutters and orbital defense units permanently assigned to the colonies. Soon the colonial space lanes were filled with traffic as the system wide holiday weekend began despite the teachers strike and the flooding on Canceron.

Admiral Thomson was nervous, the Armistice officer was overdue and not responding to hails. So he had ordered his Strike group to Condition two and to rendezvous here. All two hundred ships except the Columbia with Admiral Green and its escorts were assembled.

"Helms take us to within Four S.U. of the Armistice station. Keep us out of weapons range but close enough that we can engage an enemy force that may be there if we have to."

"Yes sir" Replied the helmsman nervously. His XO looked slightly nervous as well but was doing a good job of looking calm.

"What do you think XO?"

"I think we should have checked with FleetCom first sir" He said defiantly.

"Time isn't something we can afford to waste in this situation Colonel" He replied looking at the man.

"Understood sir. Just feel uneasy is all."

"Don't we all, XO order the strike group to deploy"

In two minutes the entire 4th Strike group jumped to within dradis range of the Armistice station.

"Dradis contact, massive unknown vessel directly over what remains of the armistice station! Sir the stations been destroyed"

"Damn it! The Cylons have broken the Armistice. Comms, get a flash message back to Picon and inform all Combatant commands we have engaged the enemy. Give them our position and tactical status as well" Ordered Admiral Thomson as he thought his ship was going to be the first to engage the cylons in a new war.

"Bring us about and prepare the bow batteries for salvo fire, order the Tinla and Oden to form up on our port side."

Outside the Four battlestars sped ahead of their escorts with vipers rocketing out of the flight pods. It took them less than three minutes to form up and move towards the advancing Cylon raiders.

"All Vipers, razzle dazzle, stick to your wingman, we have the numerical advantage but don't get cocky. All Vipers weapons free, lets go get em" Said the CAG of the Solstice Major Ethan "Whiplash" Rivera.

"Tally three hundred bandits coming in Mark 2.8" He heard over his wireless.

"Copy I have visual, what the hell." He was shocked as he replied. "There's no Cockpits, nothings flying these damn things"

"Makes sense CAG, they're Cylons, they don't need pilots" Said a member of his air wing.

"Right, lets waste these bastards" He replied as the two forces closed in on each other.

Suddenly his Cocpit flickered. "What the hell. I'm losing power! NO!"

"CAG, our vipers are just shutting down. No ones maneuvering anymore. What is this?" Asked one of his trailing ECM raptors.

"All Raptors get the hell out of here. Were defenseless" He said as he saw hundreds of missiles begin spreading out from the incoming wall of raiders. He watched in horror as his lead squadrons were annihilated. He looked behind him expecting to see over two hundred Colonial Warships advancing towards him. Instead he saw chaos. Ships were floating aimlessly, some colliding into each other. All of them without any visible power. He turned to face the incoming missiles and closed his eyes. Knowing there was nothing he could do to avoid his imminent death.

The Baseship moved towards the incoming Colonial Fleet strike group now reinforced by an additional four baseships. Nuclear tipped missiles raced across the space between the two fleets as the Cylons advanced unopposed on the now helpless fleet of warships. Forty Two Raptors managed to jump back to their staging area before they were destroyed. There they began a rapid series of jumps back to the Colonies.

COLONIAL BATTLESTAR THREION BSG -52 ETA TO ZERO HOUR - 2 HOURS

Lieutenant Haley Aaron silently waited for the hatch to open. Just returning from a four week shore leave, she couldn't wait to get back in the cockpit. She was a raptor pilot herself but she preferred to be the one flying the raptor not the passenger. Her call sign Star was because of how much she loved to look at the Stars when she was flying, ever since her days at the Athenian academy on Caprica she had dreamed of being a pilot and seven months ago she had made that dream come true. Her fellow pilots loved to pit themselves against her as she was one of the best raptor pilots in the fleet.

"Hey Star, heard you were back aboard, care for a game of cards later on?" Said her ECO Lt Michael "Hunter" Wilson "Sure as soon as I get my stuff put up" She said as she smiled. She was glad to finally be back

"Well hurry up, you know it's not the same without you in there kicking everyone's ass!" She laughed and said

"You all would be hopelessly lost without me!" she teased back.

"Maybe but at the end of the day I'd probably have a lot more money in my back pocket. Im not even married and still a woman finds a way to drain my checkbook"

That got her to laugh out loud and flip him the bird.

CIC

As the CIC crew went about their business, the room snapped to attention when the Marine guard at the door yelled "Commander on deck!"

"As you were. Lieutenant Forsen what's our status?" Asked the Commander as he walked passed the glass doors of the CIC and to his post by the center console. Jason Riggs was a legend among the fleet, while he hadn't seen combat during the Cylon war, he had seen it against pirates, smugglers and even terrorist. His tall muscular frame gave off an intimidating appearance. His face was rough, with a scar down his right cheek from a viper accident when he was young. He kept his hair short and cropped all the time. He lived by the standard of the fleet. He had helped organized the massive colonial military offensive against the SLA 2 years previous, with Admiral Jameson of the 1stth Fleet that had resulted in the Capture of Tom Zarek. He was probably the most relaxed Commander in the fleet in regards to regulations and discipline. Yet his ship was by far one of the best in the fleet. He made it a point to know his crew and never reach a conclusion without knowing the facts. He gave his ship and his crew his all, and he expected the same from them. His crew was loyal to him to the point that they would follow him to hell if they had too. He was greatly respected by both his crew and his peers. His loyalty to the fleet had cost him his first wife, and with her his first child. He had married again and he and his wife had two children both of whom were preparing to enter the fleet academy. His family including his ex-wife was on Vacation aboard Cloud 5 near Gemenon.

"Ship is fully armed, stocked and loaded to the brim with fuel sir. All hatches and dock connections secured and severed. All ship systems operating at 100 percent efficiency sir. We are cleared for departure." Said Lieutenant Amy Forsen with her best 'I knew what you were going to ask' voice with a small smile on her face. She had been on the Therion for five months but she had become the best Tactical officer the Therion had ever had. She had graduated with honors from War College and Tech School. Her first assignment had been her choice and of course she had chosen the best ship available. The Therion was her first assignment out of War College and she was excelling at it. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a bun behind her as was standard for most women in the Fleet. At 5'11 she was taller than the average woman. Her sleek athletic form toned by years of swimming, running and playing pyramid. She loved her Job more than anything in the world. She was proud of the work she did. Her she felt like she truly made a difference.

"Very well, Helm's take us out for our patrol." ordered the Commander as the ship gracefully slid out of its dock. After undergoing a refit to install new systems a year ago, excluding the CNP per Nagala's orders, she had been renovated. Her bow turrets were now slightly larger packing a much more powerful slug that was capable of tearing through the Armor of the most advanced ships in the fleet. The Therion had been commissioned as a Mercury class, but the renovation four months ago had made her almost a completely different class. On the outside the differences were hard to see unless you put another Mercury class battlestar right next to her. You would see the bow was 134 meters longer than a standard Mercury's. An extension to the ships bow had been added to accommodate additional water purification and food storage areas along with a larger ammunition magazine for the forward batteries which had been enlarged and moved forward with the longer bow. Her fire control and target acquisition systems were the top of the line. Literally unmatched by anything else the Colonial Military had fielded. She carried four extra Dual Kinetic Energy weapons on her bow, center exactly where they could deliver the most firepower. In addition to the bow being longer, the Therion's flight pods were larger, as to accompany two extra Marine drop ships. Each battlestar had four on each flight pod but the Therion had six. She carried a massive air wing composed of 380 vipers with 75 raptors. Her crew compliment numbered just over 4,300. She also carried an additional 75 Marines in addition to the 300 that were normally assigned to battlestars. The Therion had spent nearly a year and a half in dry-dock with crews working around the clock to make her operational again. Her four month long deployment had been extended to have her participate in the War games exercises. Her original shakedown cruise had noted a few deficiencies but they had been corrected before the war games with the third fleet. Now the additional maintenance issues that had risen due to her participation in the war games had been corrected in the three week long shore leave since the end of the games. In the War games the Therion had won the gunners cup her weapons department scoring an astounding ninety six percent hit rate without the CNP. Her raptor squadron had won the AWACS competition and gone true blue. While her speed had been beaten by the Yashumann her vipers had scored third in the overall fighter competition. She truly was a top of the line warship.

PICON- ZERO HOUR- THE FALL

The massive shipyards know to the Colonies as Picon Fleet Headquarters was an eye catching sight with eighteen battlestars docked at it. It was by far the biggest shipyard in all of the Colonies with numerous pylons, facilities, hangers and smaller satellite facilities orbiting it. Fleet Admiral Corman was in his office reading a report about the Fourth fleets deployment which he hadn't authorized. He grew increasingly angry as he continued to read just where they had been sent. He was about to call for his Aide when she walked in. 'Convenient timing' He thought to himself. He had chosen the young Captain out of the academy to be the junior Tactical officer aboard the battlestar Solaria under his former XO Commander Amanda Stavy. He had given her specific instructions about her while she served under her command. He had high hopes for the young woman and was proud of the excellent work she had done under him. To be his Aid he had put her through a rigorous self-defense training program and had given her world class firearms training. It was only an added benefit that she was exceptionally gorgeous. He noticed almost instantly that she looked almost pale. Was she scared he wondered

"Sir, we have unconfirmed reports of several Raptors from the Fourth Strike group of the Fourth fleet jumping into Outlying Ataria sir. They report the Fourth SG jumped to the Armistice station and immediately encountered a Cylon basestar"

The Admiral was speechless for a moment before collecting himself "My gods, the cylons actually went to the Armistice station to negotiate." He said unbelievingly. In Forty years the cylons had never sent anyone to the station. His mind was racing about what their return might mean.

"No sir." She said to him.

"What do you mean no?" He inquired almost already knowing the answer but hoping he was wrong.

"The Pilots say the station had already been destroyed when the Strike Group arrived. It was gone sir. Admiral Thomson ordered the fleet to attack. But just before they came in contact with the enemy, they report all of their ships lost power sir. They said it was like someone just flipped a switch. The Cylons nuked the whole fleet without them firing a shot sir" He could almost see the tears beginning to form in her eyes. The Cylons had broken the Armistice. They were at war.

"Captain, get me Admiral Nagala please" he said in a way that made the young woman tremble.

"Yes Sir" Said Captain Paige Terrence as she walked away to carry out the Admiral's orders. She had been hand selected by the Admiral to be his aide and she had rarely seen him as mad as he was now. She had been his assistant for just over a year, after a previous assignment to the battlestar Solaria as the Ships Tactical Officer. She'd been in the Fleet for four years out of the academy and was one of the first in her class to make Captain. As she went to carry out her orders she was thrown to the floor by a massive explosion that rocked the station. The Admiral was thrown into his desk and was incapacitated instantly. Looking around Paige knew something was seriously wrong as she took in the situation, the Young Captain tried to move to her fallen Admiral as explosions enveloped the Shipyards. As she looked out the window towards the shipyard she could only stare in shock. A Valkyrie class battlestar was split in two drifting out of control even as another nuke detonated on its alligator head, Vipers and what she knew could only be Raiders were everywhere. Contrails from missiles crisscrossed the station hitting communication relays, power stations, fuel depots and defensive batteries. Most of the Vipers however she noticed began to lose power and drift right towards the Cylons. Of the eighteen battlestars that had been docked, only eight were now firing back at the Cylons and barely at that. The attack had caught them completely by surprise. The other ten were adrift, destroyed or heavily damaged. She saw a whole section of the shipyard break away and fall towards a Basestar. As she tried to stand up to get to the Admiral and administer first aid, her leg collapsed, and she realized it was broke, the pain shooting through her body like she had just been hit by a train, just as a steel beam collapsed over her waist, pinning her against the wall. In vain she tried to move out from under it as more and more explosions occurred all around her. The situation was grim, the stations defense which should have blared to life the moment the Cylons appeared weren't even firing. They had taken extensive damage and Admiral Corman was incapacitated. Outside it was chaos, the Civilians were desperately trying to get away from the carnage and wreckage that was once Picon Fleet headquarters but many were being cut to pieces by the Raiders that now clearly held space superiority, soon FTL flashes began to envelope the Colony as hundreds of Civilian ships jumped away to what they thought would be safe zones. Thousands of smaller battles began in the area surrounding Picon as the Cylons moved away from the Shipyards in the minutes after the opening shots and engaged the defense fleet. Forty five cruisers managed to establish a battle line in front of the main cylon attack fleet and hold them off.

On the surface the Marines and Army were springing into action, their response almost instant, not needing confirmation of what was happening. Infantry units were rushing to their armories, securing weapons and ammo, while transportation companies prepared to move units and equipment into the cities. The appearance of dozens of miniature suns told the Generals all they needed to know. Heavy Mechanized units were cold starting their vehicles and rushing to load them with gear, weapons ammunition and fuel. Rushing to set up defensive batteries in the cities, the Marines and Army were moving at a speed never before seen. Their efforts were for nothing as the nukes would start to fall in mere hours. An emergency broadcast was sent over all available channels advising the civilian population to seek shelter or to evacuate the larger cities as soon as possible. Thousands of Vipers and raptors of the Picon defense fleet roared up into space, scrambling with ten minutes of the first nuclear detonation. With thousands more being fueled, armed and readied for action. The cylons however were shocked to find the CNP ineffective on them. The home defense fleet had never purchased the CNP. Over four hundred cruisers and destroyers engaged the cylons. The battle of Picon began, with the opening bombardment of Picon fleet headquarters which was now being boarded by the Cylons as the shipyards defenses had been completely defeated. The Home defense fleet clashed with the cylons in the orbit of Picon in a dramatic display of bravery and courage. The pilots unhesitatingly engaging the Cylons that had expected them to simply shut down. The raiders had been caught off guard not expecting a fight. The Vipers and Spectre Gunships quickly began to rack up kills as the Cylons attempted to reorganize and dig in for the long fight. But the counterattacking colonials pressed the attack and began to push the Cylon fighters back. Of the eight battlestars that hadn't been destroyed or disabled in the initial attack, only four remained. Those four heavily damaged battlestars were desperately trying to regroup with the defense fleets eighty remaining combat effective cruisers and establish a defensive battle line to allow for reinforcement to arrive. None would. The Cruisers were teaming up on the forty baseships that had attacked Picon, with most of them having launched their initial attack on the fleet headquarters shipyards and facilities it had given them time to reposition and launch a counter attack, reinforced by thousands of Vipers and gunships from the surface. Fleet orbital cutters and frigates concentrated on delaying actions and providing cover fire and protection for the larger more heavily armed capital ships. As more and more of the Cylons capital ships began to enter the fray after the defeat of the Fleet headquarters facilities the ground commanders on the surface knew they were going to be in for a long and hard battle.

Over Caprica it was a different story, the shipyard hadn't been under control of the CNP. The moment the Baseships appeared on DRADIS, the KEW's and point defense batteries recognized the threat immediately. The radiation signatures of the active nukes telling the operating system everything it needed to classify the new contacts as hostile and unknown. Every single Gun and missile battery in orbit opened up with a ferocity never before seen by the Cylons. It made little difference in the end as dozens of nuclear missiles carried by Cylon Raiders soon detonated and began to inflict heavy damage on the station before a proper perimeter could be established. The Stations defensive perimeter now had serious gaps that vipers and frigates were rushing to fill. Of the sixteen battlestars over Caprica, six were disabled by the CNP virus and quickly destroyed. The vipers and Raptors of the defense fleet, much like those of Picon, were soon all over the atmosphere and surrounding space over Caprica. The Third fleet was the only unit not suffering major loses. Soon after the Acropolis jumped in the Cylons were forced to fall back, even though the Defense network was down, the fleets over Caprica, Virgon and Picon were giving the Cylons hell. The Columbia, flagship of Admiral Green, was soon destroyed by a nuclear barrage. Dozens of Baseships would soon jump into Caprica, the cylons clearing committing their reserves to the fight. While there were only nineteen battlestars, some had jumped in when they had received the attack warning, they were fighting as hard as they could. In a straight one on one fight, a Battlestar would win every time. Their Armor was just too thick, the Cylons only advantage was their ability to launch a massive barrage of missiles both nuclear and conventional in the opening moments that could overwhelm a ships defenses before they were fully established. Altogether almost 526 Military vessels were engaged in combat with the Cylons, the vapor trails of the explosions in orbit were clear for all to see. None doubted what was happening, the Military was fighting desperately to give the Government time to make decisions and issue orders. However only a fraction of the firepower of the colonial military was being used against the cylons. The orbital defense grid was down disabled by the CNP. The Colonial Government was in chaos, the president was being evacuated to a military bunker north of Caprica city. He would never make it as a Fifty Megaton Nuclear warhead detonated just over Caprica City in the initial fifteen minutes after the attack, killing the entire cities population of seventeen million along with the eight other million that lived within a twenty mile area. While the Marines and Army were moving into positions to repel any potential invasion, they had no way of knowing where that invasion would start or how many enemy troops they would be facing. Soon the spaceports were being overrun with panicked and scared people, vipers were keeping most of the Raiders out of the atmosphere but they only had a limited supply of ammunition and fuel and Delphi Air base had already been hit by several missiles. The attack had just happened too fast for any meaningful evacuation to be successful. In the chaos to get out of the city, accidents happened and traffic stalled. Almost six million people were now taking to the skies as they attempted to escape the carnage that was sure to come.

BATTLESTAR THERION 2 HOURS FROM VIRGON

CIC

Lt Amy Forsen was at her station in the CIC going about her duties when a radiological alarm went off. She registered it immediately. Captain Alexander Rogers was the OOD and began to walk over to her.

"Sir radiological alarm! I'm detecting nuclear detonations throughout the system, hundreds of them sir too many to count. Many in the megaton range. Sir I think the colonies are under attack" She said the fear evident in her voice. The Entire CIC had come to a standstill and stared at her. The communications officer then shouted.

"Sir receiving priority one alert message from Picon Fleet Headquarters sir. Transmitted in the clear. Message reads, Attention all Colonial Units Cylon attack underway this is no drill. I have several distress calls and Omega beacons now registering sir" An Omega Beacon was a battlestars automated distress call that was activated if more than thirty percent of the ship lost atmospheric pressure or power was lost to the ships main computer systems.

Captain Rogers mind was racing. This was real, there could be no doubt. But what did he have to do. He looked up as the Marines guarding the CIC loaded their weapons and racked their bolts to the rear and let them slide forward loudly, chambering a round. 'At least they know what to do'

"Sound Action stations, set condition one and launch the Alert fighters. Tactical, start a plot of all military forces in the solar system, friendly or otherwise. Dradis begin sweeps of the area, I want to know what's out there" He said as he took back up his station by the Plotting table. "Aye sir" Said Lt Forsen as she keyed the Alarm and activated the 1MC.

"Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship, this is not a drill, repeat this is not a drill. Action stations, action stations. Attention on the flight deck, attention on the flight deck launch alert fighters, repeat launch alert fighters"

Commander Jason Riggs was in his quarters on a video chat with his wife when the alert went off.

"Jason what's going on? Is everything okay?" She said sounding overly worried.

"I don't know hun, I'll call you back as soon as I can. I love you, I got to go okay." He said to the monitor as he put on his top.

"Okay baby, call me back when you can. I Love you"

He picked up the wireless headset and dialed the CIC.

"CIC tactical officer speaking" He heard Lieutenant Amy Forsen say. He liked the young lieutenant, she was a quick learner with a good head on her shoulders and he had no doubt her career was gonna go far.

"SITREP lieutenant"

"Sir we detected multiple nuclear detonations throughout the colonial system sir, and we received an alert message from Fleet HQ informing all colonial units that a Cylon attack was underway. We don't believe this is a drill sir" She spoke slow and deliberately and sounded calm but Riggs could detect a hint of fear in her tone.

"Understood ill be right there" He hung up the receiver and immediately walked out of his quarters. His two Marine guards he noticed as they began walking towards the CIC, pulled back on the charging handles of their weapons and brought their weapons to Amber status. Meaning a round was chambered and ready to fire but the safeties were still on and fingers weren't on the trigger just yet. It took him five minutes to get to the CIC. In that time he knew his XO would be rushing their too. The Alert fighters he knew were launched within the first minute and two to four additional squadrons would have been put on ready alert by now. Meaning all of those vipers were in the tube, ready to launch and reinforce the CAP and the alert fighters already in the air.

As he entered turned down the long narrow hallway leading to the CIC he saw the Marines were taking this very seriously. Halfway in between the corner he had just turned and the glass doors that led to the CIC were two alcoves on both side, large enough for someone to stand in. Now edging out of those alcoves was a fully automatic M87 Rallings Machine gun on a wall mounted sheet of four inch think steel. The weapons were loaded and like the Marines following him were on Amber. Riggs was impressed with how quickly his ship seemed ready for combat, except what worried him was that this time it wasn't going to be a drill.

"Commander on deck!" Yelled the marine at the door as he walked into the combat information center.

"Carry on, XO Sitrep." His XO was on the other side of plot table and looked nearly pale white.

"Sir multiple nuclear detonations confirmed throughout the system. We've been unable to reach Picon Fleet headquarters and we've registered and confirmed at least thirty Omega distress beacons since we got the initial attack warning. The main fights seem to be taking place over Caprica and Virgon."

"That's almost a quarter of the fleet lost. Have we received any orders or communication from our Strike group commander?" He asked as he took in the information he had just heard. The overall tactical situation was pretty bleak. The Cylons had achieved complete surprise and they were suffering heavy losses.

"No sir, all military channels appear to be offline, scrambled or are too garbled to be used effectively anymore. Everything were getting is in the clear sir"

"Which means the Cylons are hearing it too." Then Riggs got an idea. "Send a message in the clear to our battle group commander, message reads Battlestar Therion reporting Tactical status, fully operational and assumed combat ready status, awaiting orders. Location, Orbit of Talon IV. Omega One one Constellation, Message ends. Hopefully that'll draw a few ships away from the Colonies."

"What's that last part sir?" Asked Colonel Branson as he nodded at the communication officer to send it.

"It tells colonial commanders that it's a feint, a false location to preserve a ships actual location. It's mainly used to set up ambushes and traps"

"Trying to spread the enemy out sir" Said Colonel Branson understanding the commander's intent.

"Exactly. Helms come to new course, two eight one, engines ahead full." He said ordering the ship to begin to head for Virgon.

"Tactical, give me a SITREP" Ordered the commander as Lieutenant Amy Forsen signaled Ensign Jamie Harris to take over her post.

"Sir, it appears the Cylons have attacked in mass at all the major colonies. We have unconfirmed reports of at least forty baseships at Picon with nearly Fifty at Virgon. However many of the smaller colonies or out of the way locations haven't been hit yet"

"Where's the nearest fleet unit?" asked Colonel Branson

"Over an hour away sir, and they're making best possible speed toward Virgon. It's the Battlestar Nemesis sir with accompanying escorts" Answered Lt Forsen

"Alright, send a signal to our Strike Group Commander, encrypt it using standard TAC-1 protocol. Even if it's in the clear the Cylons won't be able to know what it is" Said Riggs before he noticed she was giving him a solemn look. "What's the matter Lieutenant?"

"Sir, the Solaria has been confirmed destroyed over Virgon in the opening wave of the attack. Along with the Triton and over fifty percent of their escorts sir. The remaining ships are heavily engaged with the Cylons sir" She said sadly

"What about the Night Flight and Acropolis?" Asked Riggs hoping he could rally the 1st Strike Group of the Third Fleet for a counterattack. Command of the Strike Group technically now fell under rear Admiral Welch. But Riggs knew he was at Picon Fleet headquarters when the attack had happened and was more than likely dead now

"No word from the other ships in the strike group sir." She replied.

"Where the hell are our escorts, do we have any contact with the Boxer, Odysseus, or the Indomitable and Avenger?" Asked Colonel Branson inquiring about their four Brenton class Cruiser escorts, essentially miniature battlestars without flight pods, instead a single 400 meter flight deck under the main hull that was built into the ship instead of being separated like on the battlestars. They were capable ships, designed to go toe to toe with a baseship in pairs or more. One on one they were an even fight. They had less KEWs than a battlestar but more defensive batteries and longer reaching Triple A's that could allow a battlestar to attack a baseship without worrying about missile barrages taking them out in the process.

"No sir, we've had no word from them since the attack. The Indomitable was at Caprica with the Avenger. The Boxer and Odysseus were conducting gunnery drills near the Gantata Asteroid field sir"

"What about our destroyers?" Asked the Commander as he took in what she said. Two of their Cruisers were now undoubtedly engaged with the Cylons or destroyed.

"All but two were at Caprica as well sir and most of our Frigates" Reported Lieutenant Forsen. All of their escorts were either engaged, destroyed or they had no contact with them.

"Send a message to the Boxer and Odysseus, if they aren't engaged yet, order them to rendezvous with us here" Ordered the commander. "XO I want you to plot a course along this axis here, try to keep Virgon between us and the battle. We may be able to get in pretty close before the Cylons even know were there"

"Yes sir" Replied the XO

"Is there any other nearby Colonial Units?" Asked Riggs as he looked at the tactical plot

"The Galactica is an hour behind us sir, but they were just decommissioned and there last fighter squadron is heading toward Caprica."

"Have the CAG send a detachment of Vipers to the Galactica, two squadrons with four Raptors loaded with full ordnance packages. Give the Galactica some protection at least." He ordered "and Send commander a message and let him know they're on the way"

PILOTS BRIEFING ROOM

Lt Marissa Stas and Lt Trevor Billis listened mouths open in shock as their CAG, Major Jessica "Angel" Burton briefed the pilots not on cap or Alert status.

"All we know for sure is the Cylons achieved complete surprise and we're taking heavy losses. Look I know you're scared and I understand. Fear will get you killed out there so put it aside. Focus on covering your wingman when they go on the offensive, remember your training and don't fixate on your targets. Keep your heads on a swivel and watch for friendly fire. Now Headhunters and Eagle Riders, you're being detached and sent to the Galactica, her last viper squadron is on its way to Caprica and she's defensless, so suit up and get on your way ASAP. I expect all of my pilots to return home. Good Hunting. Dismissed"

"Holy Frak" Said Lt Jessica "FireFly" Brookes. Marissa's wingman.

"Alright let's go slay some toasters" Said Lt Trevor Billis as he got up.

"War with the Cylons, this is insane" Said Marissa worried.

"Well we're the best pilots on the ship, so let's get out there and kick some ass"

Lt Billis went to his wingmate and walked out headed for the flight pod. They would be going to the Galactica.

CAPRICA

The 23rd Marine Infantry Division was maneuvering towards Delphi in a long convoy. Their goal was to prevent the invasion and conquest of the city to allow the civilian population time to evacuate. The Colonial fleet in orbit was holding out against the cylons for now but General Griggs knew that wasn't going to last. The Fleet had been defeated they just didn't know it yet. He had no heavy armor in his division but he had a few mechanized APC's and Gun trucks, he knew he was going to need them. His division artillery was following behind them in another long convoy, they would be crucial to the defense he knew.

BATTLESTAR THERION

CIC

The ship was moving towards Virgon at best possible speed. Four squadrons of Vipers were spread out around in the ship in an air defense formation. Commander Riggs had dispatched three raptors to Picon, Virgon and Caprica to ascertain the tactical situation. The fleet at Picon was in trouble, they were outnumbered and totally defensive. The Fourth Fleet had lost ten battlestars in the opening wave of the attack and had lost another six in the hour since. The reports from the Second fleet were almost none existent however 75 percent of that fleet was deployed to the Armistice line at any given time. Riggs guessed they had been the first ships to be destroyed. The Fourth Fleet had taken an unusually high number of casualties unlike the First and Third fleets. The remaining ships of the third fleet were holding Virgon however and were giving the Cylons one hell of a pounding according to his scouts, led by Admiral Nagala, Riggs knew the Cylons were in for one hell of a battle. The Forces at Caprica had responded with near perfection to the attack, destroying over half of the Cylon invasion force and pushing the Cylons back almost four thousand Kilometers from the orbit of the planet. The remaining ships however were all slightly damaged and Riggs knew the Cylons had only just begun their attack. They now had no contact with Gemenon, Libran, Aerilon or Aquaria. Riggs wanted a clearer picture of the Tactical situation before he decided where to commit his ship.

"Sir our vipers have reached the Galactica, Commander Adama sends his thanks sir. They've already come under attack by atleast two raiders but Galactica managed to get her museum Vipers in the air apparently. The Old girls got two squadrons of Viper Mark twos in the air and ready for combat sir" Said Colonel Branson with a sense of awe.

"If anyone could pull something off like that. It would be Bill Adama" Said Riggs before Lt Forsen spoke up.

"Sir Admiral Nagala has assumed command of the fleet aboard the battlestar Atlantia. He's ordering all available ships not currently engaged to rendezvous with him at Virgon for regroup and counterattack"

"Very well, make the ship ready for combat jump XO. I want all Vipers in the tubes, ready to launch as soon as were in range of the enemy. Gun batteries release on local authority."

"Yes sir, and sir that message took almost thirty minutes to reach us. The battle is probably pretty pitched by now"

"Well hopefully the fleets established a defensive battle line and we can simply fall in where were needed" Replied Commander Riggs hoping and praying that they had.

HANGER BAY

Lt Haley Aaron ran up to the steps over her raptor and hopped aboard. Her ECO was already strapped in and going through pre-flight checks. Her Raptor had a pair of Miniguns attached to the hull along with a full missile and rocket pod loadout.

"Ready to rock Star?" He said as he reported all systems were green.

"I was born ready" She said in a cold icy tone. The word had leaked out that the colonies were under attack. While the CO hadn't made an official announcement to the rest of the ship yet. It had been almost an hour since the alarm for action stations had sounded and al the squadrons on board had gotten pre-flight briefings. They knew what they were heading into. The Alert Fighters and Cap had been brought back aboard and were now being re-armed and refueled.

CIC

Commander Jason Riggs picked up the Wireless headset and keyed the mike for a ship wide announcement. Solemnly he looked around before speaking to the crew.

"Attention this is the commander…I'm sure by now most of you have heard the rumors that the Colonies are under attack. They are, and the fleet is taking heavy losses. Admiral Nagala has ordered a fleet regroup and counterattack at Virgon. We will be jumping to join him momentarily. Don't let fear get you killed today, remember your training, trust yourselves and your fellow shipmates. I have complete faith and confidence in all of you. The Colonies are depending on us. All hands prepare for combat jump"

COLONIAL FIFTH FLEET JUST BEGINNING SCHEDULED TRAINING EXERCISE

CASTER ASTEROID FIELD 62 SU AWAY FROM THE COLONIES 6 HOURS AFTER THE ATTACK

The Pilots of Viper Flight School 40-08 had been assigned at random to the Fifth fleet to take part in the fleets training exercise. After getting their viper qualifications and passing their final exams, they were now fully qualified pilots. The class was split in half between the two opposing forces. Ensign Cody Carroll was flying his viper in formation with his squadron when his wireless came to life in his ear "All vipers' emergency recall, repeat Emergency recall, all Viper trainees land immediately. This is not a drill"

"Alright boys and girls, let's get back to the barn. Don't know why don't care. Let's hurry it up"

"Attention all vipers, combat landings authorized, repeat combat landings authorized. This is not a drill repeat this is not a drill"

'What the frak' he thought as he began running an approach vector along with all of the other pilots. Combat landings were only used, well in combat. His mind was racing as he checked his Dradis but saw only friendly contacts. 'What the hell is going on' around him the cruisers and frigates which hadn't deployed their fighters began to jump away in blinding flashes of light. 'This shit is real'. He graduated from the academy eight months ago and had spent the last five months in advanced combat tactics and flight school on Picon. He had graduated 212 of his class of ten thousand and was excelling in flight school. He was a driven and passionate pilot who loved to fly and he showed it every time he got in the cockpit.

Slowly more and more ships of the fleet began to jump away even as his squadron landed aboard the Fleet training star Citadel

Aboard the Titan a young Marine PFC Scott Bradley was being rushed with his fireteam to a nearby staging point for the Marines Quick response force. He was nervous, the Commander had just announced that they received reports of a Cylon attack on the colonies was underway. He had been in the Corps for a little under a year now and already he was about to see combat.

"Lets go Marines! Weapons tight, be ready to move" Shouted his squad leader.

VIRGON H-HOUR PLUS 3

With a flash the Battlestar Therion appeared in orbit over Virgon, just as the Atlantia rammed a Baseship head on. Both ships erupted into a massive fireball and send debris in every direction.

"Sir the Atlantia just rammed the lead basehip, the flagship has been destroyed. Incoming debris brace for impact!"

"Evasive maneuvers!" Riggs yelled as he looked at the helmsman.

"Too late!" Said the XO as he braced himself. He felt the impact and he hoped to the gods it wouldn't be too bad. He somehow managed to stay upright as the ship jolted from the impact against her hull. Commander Riggs was thrown backwards into the glass window of the CIC and into the hallway. Lieutenant Forsen was knocked to the ground hitting her head on the tactical station as she fell to the floor, she was instantly unconscious. The XO Colonel Sean Branson managed to avoid the fall by bracing his hand on the navigation table. As he looked around at the CIC he saw most of the CIC crew if not all were unconscious and clearly wounded many severely. He looked at the DRADIS and saw a horrifying sight. There were twenty green dots on the screen, surrounded by twenty three more red dots representing Cylon warships. Scattered throughout the system was the debris of over two hundred Colonial warships and thirty six more baseships. The Atlantia had bought the Therion a small amount of time to escape. She had plowed into the Basestar that had been leading the Cylon attack over Virgon. Sacrificing herself for the other ships thus causing utter chaos and confusion in the Cylons ranks. But he knew they would quickly adapt and another ship would assume the role as the command vessel. As they began to reorganize the eighteen green dots representing five heavy damaged Colonial battlestars, six heavy cruisers and seven colonial destroyers, jumped away leaving the Therion as the only Colonial Military ship left over Virgon. Two of remaining ships had just been destroyed. Five Baseships began to head for the Therion within moments, recognizing the ship as the only threat left over the once pristine and beautiful world, with their raider wings already moving in for the devastating attack that would kill the Therion. Tears started to swell around the Colonels eyes as he realized that Virgon was lost. His home world, where he had grown up was now being nuked into oblivion. He silently walked over to the Tactical station and looked at the dradis screen. Stepping over the unconscious body of Lt Amy Forsen. The flight pods had lost all power preventing the Vipers from being launched. One stroke of good luck, but it also meant that the weapon batteries were offline. Four of their engines were off line. But to his amazement the FTL drive was still online and ready. He knew his time was limited. The forward batteries were firing at the nearest baseship, but he knew they wouldn't make much of a difference. As another missile struck the ship, he struggled to input a set of coordinates and press the red button that would make the ship jump. Despite another dozen explosions he managed to press it. The ship landed itself near the Cyrannus asteroid belt.

VIRGON

The evacuation of the great temple city of Virgos was underway in full. Hundreds of thousands of people were running on the interstate highway that led to the countryside. Desperately trying to escape the centurions that had invaded after the defeat of the Fleet in orbit. A Colonial Army Artillery Brigade was firing explosive canister rounds that dispersed hundreds of grenade sized explosives in a wide perimeter of a target area. They were slowing the Cylons down but they were still advancing. Three Infantry Battalions were setting up a defensive trench line to stall the Cylons even more as they got closer. But no one had any illusions that they could win this fight. These troops knew they were about to die

In orbit the remnants of the Third Fleet had been defeated with the retreat of the Therion. The remaining Vipers, Raptors and Spectre Gunships quickly destroyed or forced to land with Bingo Fuel. The pilots and crew that managed to land quickly joined with surviving military units on the ground.

GEMENON

The Colonial Fourth fleets 1st Strike group base at Gemenon had been defeated without firing a shot, ten battlestars had been in orbit or near the Planet. Six were destroyed within five minutes of the opening attack. The remaining four were boarded by the Cylons after they were disabled by the CNP. Two of the battlestars at Gemenon had been assigned to the first fleet and hadn't been under the control of the CNP. As result the Cylons had targeted them first. The cruisers, destroyers and frigates assigned to the battlestars were disorganized and unable to support each other. They were scattered throughout the system and caught completely by surprise. They quickly fell to the Cylons assault as the Cylons rapidly engaged. The remaining ships that had been boarded were valiantly but futilely defended by their Marines. A large majority of the crews were taken alive although unconscious due to the gas that was introduced to the ships after the Cylons managed to get to the air filtration systems. Without Major opposition the Cylons nuked the airbases and military bases on the Colony within minutes of their initial attack. The Home defense fleet had a majority of their ships at the Gemenon Hub Fleet station. Which was lost to a nuclear bombardment.

AERILON

The Cylons had assaulted the Colony with Twenty four baseships. Aerilon was commonly called the bread basket of the colonies. It had a population of over two billion populated with major spaceports for the shipment of foods and goods. There were no battlestars of the First Fleet over Aerilon, only three from the Second fleet. Each one was shut down by the CNP before they could even move to engage the Cylons. On the surface, the planet was home to a large Colonial Army presence as the rolling plains and countryside offered them large areas to train. It took the Cylons four hours to destroy the eighty eight cruisers that had been able to battle the Cylons. Losing only six baseships in the process. Instead of landing troops to fight the Colonial Army which had deployed its units to the spaceports and cities, the Cylons nuked them. Then they began the Invasion.

CANCERON

The shipyard over the equator went up in a fireball of nuclear explosions as the first Fleets two hundred cruisers that had been assigned to the world continued to engage the Cylons for over twelve hours. Unlike Aerilon and Gemenon, the fleet managed to hold the Cylons off with three battlestars from the First fleet and four more from the Third fleet. Those seven battlestars were up against what at first was only thirty two baseships but then climbed to forty two. The Second Fleet units that were at the world were quickly wiped out. The Civilians of Canceron took to the skies by the hundreds of thousands in ships of every kind. After the defeat of the ships in orbit the Cylons indiscriminately nuked the major population centers and military bases.

AQUARIA

The Sparsely populated world of Aquaria had its defenses swept aside as the twenty Cruisers and eighty frigates of the first fleet were destroyed in less than an hour by the twenty four baseships that had been deployed to the Colony. Most of the Colonials major population of Aquaria was on the coast of the planets one major landmass, the six major cities were each nuked with Twenty five megaton warheads. Eighty Two million people were killed in less than an hour. The remaining twenty three millions people found themselves trapped and unable to flee as less powerful nukes targeted the smaller cities. Soon the planet had less than a million survivors and the Cylons landed less than a hundred thousand centurions to finish them off.

LEONIS

The One Billion people of Leonis had little warning before the nukes fell over their cities. The Second and Third Strike groups of the Fifth fleet were based here but they were deployed on the training exercise. Only three of the First Fleets battlestars were over Leonis. With one hundred and forty cruisers. Half of which were destroyed in the opening wave of the attack. The fleet fought desperately to fend off the Cylons before they were destroyed. Only eighteen ships managed to flee before the Cylons descended on the now defenseless world. Over four million centurions would land on Leonis. Soon the nukes dropped and the population fell quickly to less than a hundred million people as the Cylons landed their troops.

The only colonies to hold out longer than six hours were Virgon, Picon, Caprica, Tauron, Sagittarion, and Scorpia. It took over eighteen hours for the Second and fourth Strike groups of the Third fleet at Caprica reinforced by seven battlestars of the First fleet to be defeated. Eight battlestars managed to jump away along with forty two other ships before the Cylons finished what their initial bombardment had started.

Tauron's defense fleet held out longer than any other planets. Twenty three baseships were lost before the Battlestar Libra was forced to retreat. When the Colonial Battle line collapsed the remaining ships were quickly destroyed.

Caprica was the only world that had major population centers left intact. Instead the Cylons were invading after the fleets defeat. Less than a hundred nukes had detonated on the surface of Caprica.

THERION 10 HOURS AFTER THE ATTACK

The Therion was heavily damaged; the flight pods had limited if any power, most of the ship was cut off from the rest by fallen ceilings, steel beams and sealed hatches that wouldn't open due to pressure loss that was a result of disconnected wires and false reading. It would take engineering over four hours to restore most systems and unseal all the Hatches that had been falsely sealed. Colonel Branson ordered the engineering department to focus on restoring power to the flight pods. In the meantime he ordered the Marines to assist the sickbay with their combat lifesaving skills that each and every one of them had been taught in Basic training and were required to remain current on. It took a lot of the pressure off the medical department and let them focus on the more severe cases. Soon the crew learned through the fleet comm traffic that Commander Adama had assumed complete command of the remnants of the fleet after about ten hours and had ordered a regroup at Ragnar anchorage. Of the ship's crew of over 4,500 over five hundred had been lost in the jump to virgon. The Commander and nine hundred more of the crew were wounded. Only two hundred and fifty fortunately had life threatening wounds. While the CO was down as was most of the senior staff Colonel Branson was busy organizing the ships repairs. He had steered the ship into the asteroid field in an attempt to avoid detection. The battle was still waging at Caprica, but he knew the Colonial forces there could only hold out for so long. He knew his ship had no chance of getting into the fight as it was. The flight pods were still without power as a piece of the Atlantia had severed the energizer that supplied power to the pods. Another piece of debris had impacted the alligator head of the ship opening up 12 sections to space.

STARBOARD FLIGHT POD - THERION- SEVEN HOURS AFTER THE JUMP.

Lieutenant Marissa "Butterfly" Stas had been sitting in her viper for the last seven hours due to the power outage. Initially she had thought the ship had been destroyed and she had begun to panic but the deck gang could be heard outside the Blast doors working furiously to get the power back on. She could hear their voices as they reassured each of the pilots that it would be okay and they'd have the power back on soon. She had streaks of makeup on her cheek from the tears. Her pride was hurt. Lt. Stas had joined the fleet right out of high school, initially serving as an Aviation Operations Specialist, responsible for dictating flight paths, vectors and altitudes to aircraft in atmosphere. She had chosen the enlisted to officer career enhancement program, scoring exceptionally well on the test and gone for pilot training. As soon as she had finished basic flight school she was chosen by Commander Riggs to be a viper trainee aboard the Therion, Riggs had a talent for spotting natural viper pilots and Marissa was one of them. She had some trouble her first couple of weeks, with other recruits that kept trying to get with her, but that ended after a rather embarrassing kick to the groin to one of them. She was exceptionally beautiful, having won too many beauty contests to name. When she had told her father she enlisted he had been furious, all she had done was laugh in his face and say a bunch of stuff about honor and how he would never understand her decision. Her dad had been divorced for over eight years and he was never with a woman for more than five months. It was part of the reason she almost never dated or got into relationships. She had distanced herself from her family for several reasons, the biggest being they didn't support her decision to enlist. After nearly eight hours of sitting in her cockpit, the power was soon restored. The engineering crew had been forced to use the auxiliary main energizer. The one that supplied power to the flight pods was a smaller one designed to reduce the strain on the primary energizers, the Therion boasted an enhanced DRADIS package that required more power to operate. Thus the smaller Energizer for the flight pods was built into the ship.

CIC 10 HOURS AFTER THE ATTACKS

"Okay so most of the pilots are out of their cockpits and are getting some rest. So that's one good thing, but we just received word from our listening raptor. Caprica has been lost. The Cylons have now started bombarding the surface with nuclear ordnance. All of the colonies themselves have been hit with at least a hundred Nukes. Picon, Virgon and Gemenon have been hit with as much as three hundred." Said Ensign James Hastings who was filling in for the unconscious Lt. Forsen. "My gods…. the Cylons are trying to annihilate us" stated the CAG Major Jessica "Angel" Burton.

"Looks that way. Alright our first objective is to find out where the remaining Colonial forces have retreated to, we know not all of the fleet was destroyed, hell the entire 5th fleet wasn't even in the fight. That's twenty five battlestars right there. Plus other units that made the rendezvous at Ragnar Anchorage. We know the Galactica and at least two hundred civilian ships plus twelve other military vessels made the rendezvous." said Colonel Branson as his eyes darted from person to person.

"First things first we need to find the Fifth fleet, chances are they never even got into the fight, I mean the time it would take for one single report to reach them at the distance is at least six hours. Take two maybe three jumps back to the colonies" said Angel

"It's been only 10 hours since the attack, who's to say they weren't the first unit to be destroyed." said the Colonel still reading reports strewn all across the tactical console.

"Well we can't assume they were Colonel! Chances are the remnants of the Fleet are attempting to reorganize and launch a counterattack as we speak. We need to get back out there!" Said Commander Riggs as he stood heavily leaning on a cane in the glass doorway that leads to the CIC. A Marine stood at his side helping him when the need arose.

"Sir are you sure you should be out of Sickbay?" asked the CAG.

"Don't question my ability to perform my duties Major. I'm more capable of doing them. Now what's the status of our vipers?" asked the Commander as he limped over to the Nav table. His voice and tone was that of pure anger and rage. The crew was shocked, never had the Commander used a tone like the one he had just used on the CAG.

"All good to go sir" Stated the CAG her voice one of a child that had just been scolded for the first time, the Commander had never spoke to any member of the senior staff in a tone like the one he had used on her. "Helm's bring us out of the asteroid field. Plot us a jump to Ragnar anchorage, while we may be battered we're still in this fight." said the Commander his eyes glassy and still watery from the pain

SICKBAY

Lt Forsen gently started to open her eyes; the first thing she noticed was the Marine in the bed right next to hers. He had cuts on his face and was unconscious. Her first instinct was to go over to him and ensure he was okay. As she started to lift herself up, a nurse appeared out of nowhere and said "Lay back down Ma'am. You took quite a hit to your head; I'm surprised your even awake right now much less not in pain."

"Who said I wasn't in pain Doc?" answered Forsen who's head felt like hammers were beating against it. She heard a constant ringing in her hears that was giving her a massive headache and her hand was at the least sprained.

"I'll get you something for the pain ma'am." Said the nurse as she walked away to tend to other patients. Amy noticed that the woman looked exhausted. Her stomach growled as she realized she hadn't eaten in a long time. In walked Lieutenant Casey "Charger" Hast. While she would never admit it she actually liked the man. He was charming, strong and was probably one of the best Vipers sticks on the ship.

"Hey I heard you got hurt up in CIC, You Okay there Amy?" said 'Charger' his voice sounded of worry and sympathy. He was obviously worried. Amy couldn't help but smile at his concern. She had grown to like him over the last five months.

"Yeah, just a concussion probably, I'll be fine. Thanks for asking though." she replied not wanting to sound weak.

"Okay… but if you need anything don't hesitate to ask okay?" said the young Lieutenant as he walked towards one of his wounded pilots who had suffered a concussion when the flight pods had lost power.

"Oh you can count on that. Can you start by getting me some food please?" Said Amy giving her best smile. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast the day of the Cylons initial assault, which had been over 18 hours ago. Casey just smiled and said "Sure thing, just let me talk to my pilot over here."

CAPRICA 18 HOURS AFTER THE INTIAL ATTACK

Everywhere as far as the eye could see there was dark billowing smoke, tracers were flying all around as the Centurions advanced up the street. The Colonial Marines prepared to fall back for the ninth time. The 23rd Marine Division (Light) had been fighting for almost nine hours straight. Ever since the Cylons had landed, they had launched only small scale counterattacks and had given very little ground. General Stanley Griggs was proud of his Marines; they had done their duty as best as anyone could ask for. With over 40 percent of his division gone. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the end came for him and his men. But he knew that for every inch the Cylons took from them they were paying with dozens of Centurions. What shocked him most were the humans, or what he had initially thought were humans, that were leading the Cylon army. It wasn't until his snipers reported they were killing dozens of the same person that he realized it. The Cylons could mimic human form. He knew the end was near but there were still millions of people left in Delphi alone and he was determined to give them as much time as possible to flee into the hills. He didn't have to wonder if his Marines would fight to their dying breath, they already were. He could see the Marine Vipers that were flying up against the raiders and while they were winning now, he knew that once again it was only a matter of time. But he also knew that this was when he was the most dangerous. The Cylons knew it too.

OUTSIDE OF DELPHI CYLON COMMAND CENTER

"Gods dammed humans, why can't our centurions defeat the 23rd Division, if the 47th Marine Division breaks out of the containment zone we have for them before our artillery can be brought to bear it's only a matter of time before they can successfully disengage and once that happens, we'll have a counter-insurgency on our hands and that's not a kind of war we want to wage. This will frak up our plans so frakking much." Said the number one known as John Cavil, he was clearly infuriated at the reports constantly coming in.

"We can't allow this, if it were any other city I would say let's just nuke them but we don't have that option here." said the model known as Leoben Conoy.

"We can't allow the 47th to reach the 23rd if that happens it will be a disaster." stated the blonde model known as number six, her face clearly showing concern. This was not going according to their plans. But one thing the cylons didn't know was that the 13th Marine heavy division and the 18th Marine division (light) were maneuvering into position to launch a massive counterattack against the Cylon four division sized force that was threatening Delphi. In less than thirty minutes they moved in to position using the smoke that the burning woods were giving off as cover from airborne detection. They had gone radio silent four miles out from the battle space. General Hector Gorton was one of the best Marine Corps generals in all of the Colonies. Due to the fact that the Cylons had encountered extremely heavy resistance over Caprica it had allowed the Marines on the surface time to position themselves to best fend off a potential invasion, they had no illusion an hour into the battle that Caprica could be held. The fleet in orbit had simply taken too many loses at the time. Once the remaining battlestars in orbit had either retreated or been destroyed the Generals knew it was only a matter of time. They had seen the nuclear detonation that had taken out Caprica City. But for some reason four divisions worth of Centurions had landed about eight miles from the city. The Marines had scrambled to put themselves between them and the Civilians that were trying to escape into the surrounding mountains. The 23rd had fought admirably but now it was his turn. "All units this is General Gorton, We are at Phase line Gold, Initiate Fires on enemy armor and heavy motorized. All units fire at will! Blow the cylons back to wherever the hell they just came from." All around him Mortars started to fire as well as the Divisions artillery. On the frontline the Tanks opened up on the closest Cylon rank that hadn't even known they were there and annihilated it. The tanks fired a canister loaded with high explosives in the rear of the shell. It was essentially a round inside of a round. Before firing the gunner had selected a distance and an altitude on the tanks computer that then sent it to the system in the canister that then told the round when to open and disperse approximately twenty grenade sized explosive balls that would detonate on contact. Essentially turning the 120mm smooth bore barrel into a giant explosive shot gun. The effects were devastating to the unsuspecting cylons caught in the open. Each round fired cleared a swath fifty yards wide and thirty deep before the main round even struck. The main rounds left a six foot deep hole in the ground and send explosive shrapnel flying forward. Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV's) rolled into the Cylon lines, their 25mm chain guns lighting off well aimed shots at enemy mortars and artillery pieces. Machine guns blazing their passengers firing from the many firing ports in the IFV's. It was a brilliantly executed counterattack. Hundreds of Marines were now reinforcing the 23rds positions as tanks continued to pour out of the woods. It wasn't long before the Cylons were retreating. As soon as the advancing Centurions had begun to withdraw the 23rd had launched its own counter attack. Both attacks worked to perfection with the leading elements of the 13th Heavy destroying around six thousand centurions before rendezvousing with the advancing elements of the 23rd and then beginning to push north to drive the cylons into the ruins of Caprica city. The counterattack of Delphi became the most famous battle during the invasion of Caprica. In less than two hours the city of Delphi was no longer under threat of invasion.

Soon general Griggs, Gorton, Manchester(18th) and General Twitty of the 47th were plotting their next attack to break the Cylon siege of Marine Corps Base Camp War Pig, where over fifty thousand Marines were desperately fighting to hold on until the 13th 18th and 47th could come to their aid. The Battle of Camp War Pig lasted throughout the night as the Colonial divisions overran their enemy with overwhelming sweeping maneuvers into the enemy's southern flank. While Camp war pig had been built at this location for a specific reason its primary purpose was to prevent the nuclear bombardment of Delphi. Yet the base had run out of Firewalker anti-ballistic missiles about thirty minutes into the battle. But something that was puzzling the Base Commander was why the Cylons hadn't even tried to nuke his base or Delphi. Griggs knew that as long as War Pig remained the Cylons would never gain access to Delphi. He had taken the 23rd to stop the Cylon units that had landed behind the Major Marine Base. The Cylons hadn't even bothered to attempt to attack the base from the rear as most of the bases defenses were pointed outwards. They had been too competent in their initial aerial and ground attack that they didn't even see the need for a rear attack. The centurions that had landed behind war pig initially hadn't even been as heavily armed as the later units that had landed. General Griggs speculated that the Cylons were after Delphi's civilians for torture and experiments.

BATTLESTAR THERION - BSG 52 22 HOURS AFTER THE CYLON ATTACK

Commander Jason Riggs walked the halls of his ship and wondered whether or not he would ever get a good night's sleep ever again. He had scolded his CAG out of anger, something he regretted deeply. She was by far one of the best CAG'S he had ever had. Her performance was spotless, he had molded her into an excellent leader. The Commander knew that she was always worried about her performance and the way she looked. He would have to apologize to her later. But what was really troubling him was that the fleet had lost, they we're no more. He began to question why he and his ship had survived. That's when he realized that he and his crew might have survived by luck. When the Atlantia had been destroyed its nukes had cooked off taking the surrounding four baseships with it. Jason knew that even if they had survived by pure luck, he and his crew were alive and they were on a battlestar. The most destructive ship the Colonial fleet had in its inventory. He was going to put that to use in a rather creative way. He had some of the best and brightest aboard, he had no doubt they were above and beyond. As he walked into the CIC the crew snapped to attention. They were broken, they had seen so much death in the last day it unnerved even him. He knew he was going to have to bring up morale and quickly. "At Ease. Listen up!" said the Commander, he waited before he knew he had their complete attention.

"I want all senior staff in the war room in ten minutes. Who's the officer on deck?" Asked the commander as a young woman raised her hand.

"Okay lieutenant. I want all vipers in the launch tubes except for the CAG, have gun batteries hot and ready. I want all DC teams ready to move and the Marines ready to repel boarders. When we jump to Ragnar, you can count on the Cylons being there, but we're going to send em' a little message. Understood." said Riggs, he had dispatched a raptor to Ragnar to inform commander Adama of his ships survival, but they had been shocked to see the cylons there.

"Yes sir" replied the very young lieutenant who had now been charged with preparing the ship for battle. The CIC crew stared at him, their eyes betraying their emotions. He could see it in them. While they looked calm and professional, deep down he knew they had all lost a part of their souls. He knew that they had all become the perfect weapons. They were heartless, emotionless in combat and were itching for some payback. He was going to give it to them. Suddenly the Dradis consoled beeped twice and then twice more. "Dradis contact, two Cylon Basestar bearing 349, Coram, 486. At range 21,000 Weapons range two minutes, enemy contacts launching fighters." yelled Ensign James Hastings. "Well looks like the cylons found us first" the CO chuckled before saying "Action stations! Set Condition One! Scramble all Vipers and only Raptors equipped with heavy ordnance. Helm come to new course 205 coram 381, rotate us on our x-axis by thirty degrees, prepare for full broadside. Arm ship to ship missiles in launch tubes one through forty, prepare to fire once we've established a defensive perimeter "

Outside the hull of the battlestar began to turn towards the two Cylon Basestar that were now launching hundreds of raiders towards the mighty battle scared battlestar. One by one Vipers streamed out of the launch tubes as they made their way towards the major battle that was sure to come. The gunners of the Therion trained their guns on the two double y shaped ships that they had so much hate for. Two Minutes later they let loose with a barrage of Flak and HEAP rounds. The vipers and raiders streamed in at each other guns blazing as the two Baseships began to experience the fire-power of a battlestar who's commander was hell bent for revenge. The gun crews of the Therion were more than on their game today as not a single missile of their initial barrage hit the ship.

PICON FLEET HEADQUARTERS- 22 HOURS AFTER THE ATTACK

Slowly her eyelids began to open. The young Woman began to come to her senses as the last explosion for the battle of Picon was seen. The last Colonial Cruiser left over Picon was destroyed after having fought for twelve hours. She silently moaned in pain, the steel beam was still pinning her against the wall. She couldn't move, her leg was broken but the wound wasn't open. Captain Paige Terrence was just 26 years old. While she had been one of the Poseidon academies for gifted student's best, she had chosen the fleet. Soon she had found herself at the Colonial fleet Academy where she had excelled. That was where Admiral Corman had taken an interest in her as an aid he had made sure she had been assigned to the Solaria, under the command of one of his former XO's Commander Anthony Staton. He knew that he would train her the way she needed to be to exceed in today's fleet. Silently she knew he was grooming her for command. Just three days ago he had told her he was making her his Tactical officer aboard the Erasmus for three years. That meant she was being promoted to Major, the Erasmus was a flagship. She had been overjoyed when he had told her. She had grown to have a respect for him as any Admirals aid would but more of a daughters like respect. Sadly she had almost no life outside of the fleet. Her whole life was the fleet. She knew nothing about romance even though she was beautiful in the eyes of the Marines who guarded the Admirals office. That's when the sound of gunfire startled her into moving, causing her to hurt her leg even more. "We will never surrender to you" Shouted a Marine as he fired his rifle, taking down a Centurion. A flash bang went off; the Marines went down writhing in pain. Her ears started to ring and her eyes became blurry. But she could make out the shiny silver body of a Cylon Centurion as it lifted the steel beam from her waist. As her vision came back she saw the centurions were just standing there, not even pointing their weapons at her or the Marines who were starting to come around. Suddenly a Centurion picked up her and the Marines and began to carry them to a Cylon shuttle. She screamed in pain the whole way. They carried her into the hanger bay were there were dozens of other Colonials and several Cylons standing around. A man walked up to her and looked at her leg. "She'll live, put her in the shuttle with the other females." said a man who at first she though was a collaborator but later realized was a Cylon. Before they put her into the shuttle with a dozen other wounded Females she saw Admiral Corman being dragged into another one. Four marines were being dragged with him. She overheard one of the human cylons say "You have to give the Marines credit; they gave us one hell of a fight. Over a thousand Centurions were destroyed by the Marines on the station. Even more on Picon alone and the battle isn't even over yet."

"It will be soon, and those that didn't die in the nukes will enjoy our prison camps" That was the last she heard before the hatch closed. She looked around at the other and noticed all of them were hurt much like she was. She was the highest ranking aboard besides a major who was unconscious.

BATTLESTAR THERION

With gun batteries blazing and vipers locked in furious dogfights the Therion was slowly gaining the upper hand in the fight. Her KEWS' were firing dozens of HEAP (High Explosive Armor Piercing) rounds into the Baseships arms where the missile batteries were. Not even ten minutes into the fight, and the Baseships were taking a serious beating as the Therion began to circle the now helpless baseships. Fewer and fewer missiles from the enemy ship even managed to reach the inner flak field. The additional gun batteries on her forward hull were hammering the Baseships with their enhanced rounds. The battlestars gun crews were just too good. With Raptors jamming every transmission the Cylons made for help, Commander Riggs knew he had the basestars dead to rights. With their rate of fire dropping rapidly from his gunners work, Jason knew it was a matter of time. His vipers had sustained loses but they were quickly wiping out the enemy's fighter wings and were starting to focus on the baseships missile batteries. Riggs had ordered them to focus on the raiders only but as a former viper pilot he knew what it felt like to be winning. They had gotten lost in their feelings of revenge. "Order vipers to return to the Therion. Have them cover the Raptors as they land. Prepare to jump to Ragnar anchorage." said the Commander as one of the baseships blinked out of existence. The other baseship was quick to follow only a minute later. Their first real taste of combat and his ship had performed flawlessly.

"All vipers aboard sir, ship reports ready for jump"

"Very well take us to Ragnar" ordered the Commander as he silently rejoiced in their small victory.

He felt the momentary sensation of the FTL jump, with everything becoming disoriented and dizzying. The effects quickly wore off however and he focused on the Dradis.

"Sir Dradis shows a fairly large debris field ahead of us. Id estimate at least three baseships sir. Detecting a colonial distress beacon as well sir. Belonging to a fast attack frigate sir"

"Damn, the Galactica's probably already left the system" Said his XO as he frowned

"Agreed, dispatch two raptors with viper escort into the anchorage to see if they left anything behind."

"Aye sir" Replied the Commo officer as he relayed the order to the flight deck. Major Jessica Burton detailed Lt Haley Aaron and Lt Devin Willis to fly the two raptors. Each would have three accompanying Marines. Six Vipers would escort them.

"You guys are just checking out the station to see if it's still intact and if the there are any colonial survivors still there. Get in fast and get out fast. We don't want to be out here any longer then we have to be"

"Understood ma'am. We'll be quick" Replied Haley as she turned to head to her raptor with her ECO in tow.

"Star" Haley turned back to the CAG as she called out to her "Watch your six out there, I need all of my pilots more than ever right now" Haley nodded knowing full well what she meant.

Five minutes later the hatch closed on her raptor and the deck crew backed her raptor on to the elevator that would take her to the flight deck. It took twenty seconds for the elevator to raise her ship up to the flight deck.

"LSO this is Raptor 239 requesting clearance to take off"

"Copy that Raptor 239 you are cleared to take off"

She brought the throttle up and fired her RCS and lift thrusters and then angled the nose to give her the necessary lift to get off the deck. As she exited the flight pod her viper escort formed up on her and the other raptor and they took off towards the entrance to the storm. It would take them only eight minutes to get to the anchorage.

Lieutenant Jessica "Firefly" Brookes flew escort for the raptors along with Lt Marissa "Butterfly" Stas and four other of her fellow pilots from the battle axes squadron. She and Marissa were known as the BAB duo. Bad ass brunettes. They had been wing mates and best friends since their very first day in the Colonial Fleet flight school. They had been in separate battalions during their time in the academy but they had quickly become friends in flight school which was a lot less stressful than the academy. They had been through a lot in their two years on active duty since graduating from flight school.

The other four pilots flying with them were nearly as good as her and Marissa so she trusted them to have their backs. She and Marissa could fly circles around them and the squadron commander with ease thou. Jessica and she had chemistry like no other. Jessica sometimes thought of Marissa as her sister that shed only met later in life.

As they rounded the bend to the storm the station came into view. Its massive size impressed her. She guessed as many as five battlestars could dock with the station at once.

"Star this is Firefly are you detecting anything on dradis?" she asked over the wireless as she began to look around using mark one.

"Not shit firefly, Dradis is useless in this storm."

"Alright well have to cautiously approach and look for any ships docked at the station. Once we clear it you and Runner go ahead and dock and let the Marines check out the station."

"Roger that."

The six escort vipers split up into three groups of two and circled the anchorage. They saw no other ships docked and the two raptors easily entered the hanger bay of the station. The vipers remained outside and established a patrol to search the area around the station.

As the hatch opened Haley watched as the Marines filed out weapons raised and fanned out to form a perimeter.

"Okay guys were just the drivers. Y'all know what you have to do. Let's try and make it quick." She said as they called the all clear.

"Yes ma'am. Keep the engines warmed up in case we need to bug out in a hurry" Replied the Marine sergeant in charge of the six man fire team, Sergeant Michael Venton.

"You got it sergeant." Replied Haley as the marines formed two arrowhead elements and headed towards the loading hatch that looked like it had seen a lot of activity recently. She noticed the two M57 Banning LMGs were in the rear. 'So they could lay down suppressing fire if the first team gets into contact' she thought, obviously the Marines knew what they were doing.

Sergeant Michael Venton led the second team of three directly behind the first team. From here he had direct control of his two most casualty producing weapons and could direct the actions of both of his elements. The lead team came up to the large double doors that looked like it had experienced heavy foot traffic recently and began to pull them open after unlocking it. The team leader pulled back off to the right just as he and the gunner to his right pulled off to the left. They set up an interlocking field of fire as the two heavy steel doors opened. It was common sense for any attacking force never to stand in front of what was called the fatal funnel. He and his men only had a small narrow area of space to shoot through but the enemy could shoot from anywhere inside the room. They only had to focus on the small corridor that presented itself as the doors opened to inflict casualties. So they set up on the corners of the doors and as they were opened their view into the room slowly increased. He would deny the enemy the chance to catch them inside the fatal funnel and give his men the best possible chance to engage the enemy. His hope was that whatever was in here wasn't as good as his Marines and would open fire the moment the doors evenly partially opened revealing both their presence and their intent. He was prepared for anything to come pouring out of the storage bay. But as his two riflemen pulled the doors further apart he could see from the angle he was at that it was empty. Then he realized this was the transfer bay. Where the heavy loading equipment was supposed to be stored. But it was all empty. 'The Galactica probably took it all' he thought as he saw the entrance to the main storage bay directly ahead.

"Alright its clear, let's move" As one the Marines picked up and reformed back into their elements at the same time moving forward.

"Michaelson tap into that computer terminal and bring up the security cameras."

"Moving sergeant" Replied the young private first class from Aerilon. He moved quickly over the station and accessed its systems. He quickly brought up the stations security system and noticed that there were only two ships recorded docked: Their two raptors. He then brought up the camera for the next room.

"Whoa! What the frak?" He said as he noticed a single man in a red overcoat inside the main storage bay.

"Wonder why the Galactica left him behind?" Said Michaelson

"No idea private but let's go find out. Nothing else in the room, let's toss in a flash bang, grab him and then bug out"

"Roger that."

The two riflemen once again pulled apart the two heavy steel doors and once they were open enough, Sergeants Venton and Corporal Stennis both threw two flash bangs. Quickly the entire Marine Fireteam dropped to a knee and closed their eyes and covered their ears. Even with their hands over their ears the flash bangs caused their ears to ring. As soon as they went off all six Marines were inside the room, and fanning out to pull security on the lone man inside and to watch for other threats. The man was writhing in pain and the marines patiently waited for him to come around. As he did and Michael noticed he had focused his eyes on him he asked "Who are you?"

"Aaron Doral, please don't shot me, I was left here on accident I swear."

"You've got food, water and that door was locked sealing you in here. I don't call that an accident Mr. Doral" Stated Venton as he began to get suspicious. "Why did the Galactica leave you behind?" He noticed his two riflemen, PFC Steven Veer and PVT Thomas Peterson had tightened their grips on the pistol grips of their rifles and their thumbs were ready to flip the safety off. He had no doubt they would put this guy down if he even made the slightest hint of aggression. He had trained them well.

"It was Colonel Tigh, he did it" The man stammered out. Michael narrowed his eyes and said "Still doesn't tell me why"

"Doctor Baltar told him I was a Cylon. Im not I swear to you! Cylons aren't humans! It's preposterous. Gods please believe me. He only said it save his own skin!"  
"What do you mean save his own skin" He asked him.

"Because it was his Program the cylons hacked and used against the fleet. It's why we got beaten so fast, it's why the defense grid never fired a shot. Please you have to believe me!" He yelled becoming more scared and frantic. Michael hesitated while looking at the man, he was nearly crying now. He noticed the man looked like he had the flu and he was sweating profusely. This was a situation he wasn't exactly trained for. If this Colonel Tigh had left him here he had obviously believed doctor Baltar that this man in front of him was a Cylon but why? He knew no Officer in the Colonial fleet would abandon a civilian to die without extremely good reason. He would have to be shown evidence. But why would the Colonel trust the man who had helped the Cylons nearly destroy the Colonies.

"Did they tell you where they were going?" Asked Corporal Stennis as he noted the hesitation of his team leader.

"No no no, they didn't but I know they were getting ready for a really big jump. Probably out of the sector. Please I'm not a Cylon. Don't kill me! I have rights" He was pleading for his life now.

"Alright well take you back to the Therion and let the Commander decide what to do" He was passing the buck on this one. It was above his paygrade to make this kind of decision. "Zip tie his hands"

Quickly PVT Peterson zip tied the man's hands behind his back and then stood him up. He then quickly forced his head and down began moving him forward, keeping his weapon behind him with one hand on the man's collar and the other on the back of his head pushing his head down in what he knew was slightly painful

"Ow why are you treating me like a prisoner, I've done nothing wrong!" The man cried out in pain

"Because I don't trust you, Colonel Tigh left you here for a reason and until I know for sure why that was I'm going to treat you like a prisoner until I get told otherwise"

Slowly the Marines escorted their new prisoner back to the waiting raptors. With PVT Peterson moving him along they made quick progress. It took them six minutes to get back to the raptors. They had already been aboard for twenty six minutes. As they entered the bay he saw the raptors had their hatches open and the engines were spun up and ready. "Peterson and Veer you're with me."

"Roger sgt" Said both of the Marines in unison as they brought their prisoner aboard and sat him down.

"What the hell is this? Who is he and why is he in cuffs?" Asked Lieutenant Haley Aaron with a look of shock on her face. Michael started to get annoyed. He could tell by the tone in her voice that she was angry.

"He got left behind by a Colonel Tigh, said the Galactica fleet has left the system. There's nothing left in the system" He said calmly.

"So why the frak is he detained and being treated like a prisoner?" She was practically yelling at him now.

"Cause Colonel Tigh left him behind for a reason and I don't believe what he says" He replied with a slightly raised voice of his own.

"I've don't nothing wrong! Please Ma'am I swear to the gods I am an innocent man!" Doral said clearly seeing that the young raptor pilot was on his side. PFC Veer then smacked the back of his head with the butt of his rifle "Shut up!"

"Private what the frak do you think you're doing!" Haley yelled at him as she stood up from the pilot's seat. Her hand moving to the sidearm on her hip. Something not missed by the Marines.

"Ma'am you need to calm down" He said in cool tone to try and ease the tension.

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down. What you're doing is illegal!" She shouted back at him. Michael could clearly tell she was very upset. Dealing with upset women was not his strong suit.

"Listen the Galactica left him here for a reason, and I don't trust the bastard"

"I suppose it doesn't matter that I'm completely innocent" He said before PFC Veer smacked him again

"Private! Do that again and I swear to frakking hades ill have your ass in the brig."

Lieutenant Michael Wilson spoke next with a tone that told the Sergeant he too was pissed off.

"Stand the Frak down! Right now Private! Sergeant undo the restraints. Sit down and strap in. Star, fly the Raptor back to the ship. We'll deal with this when we get back to the ship" She looked at her ECO with eyes like daggers for a second and the gave a huff in resignation.

Star immediately sat back down and strapped in. Hunter could tell she was fuming, he had never seen her this angry before and he was kind of surprised. But he also understood the reason why. He could hardly believe the Marines had treated this man who had been left behind like he was an enemy combatant. It was unethical and it violated the standards of conduct.

Quickly the two raptors took off and vectored back to their battlestar, the Marines in Haley Aarons raptor keeping a close eye on their now freed prisoner.

Haley Aaron was furious. The man the Marines had returned with clearly needed medical attention. But instead of safely escorting a civilian back to the raptors for evac, they had treated him like he was the enemy. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what was going through their minds.

"Viper escorts this is Raptor 239, were punching it out of here. We have a Medical Emergency aboard"

"Roger Star, did the Marines take contact inside the station?" Asked Buttefly as the Vipers matched her speed.

"Negative they found a civilian inside. He looks in pretty bad shape. Instead of protecting him like they were supposed to they zip tied him and treated him like a prisoner" She said over the wireless

"What the frak, what for?" Replied another pilot Lt Adam Hayes call sign Jackpot

"No idea, I about ripped their heads off thou. Frakking imbeciles"

"Yeah well deal with that when we land" Said Firefly over the wireless as her viper took the lead

WAR-ROOM BATTLESTAR THERION 6 HOURS LATER ZERO HOUR PLUS 32

"So Adama's left the sector. Can't say I blame him with over four hundred Civilian ships to guard. First things first, Lieutenant Forsen I want you to plot out a jump to the Fifth fleets last known position we can try to find them and hopefully link up our forces and then give the Cylons hell." said Commander Riggs as he looked at the tactical chart. "Yes sir" said Lt Amy Forsen. She still had a pretty bad headache and her left hand was in a splint but she could do her duty.

"Now Major Steel, care to explain the actions of your Marines?" Asked the Commander as all eyes turned to him.

"I Spoke to all six of them sir. It's my opinion that their actions were justified given the tactical situation"

"Excuse me? He's a colonial citizen!" Said Major Jessica Burton who was just as furious after hearing Lt Aaron's report.

"Tactical situation?" Said Amy looking at him with a look of puzzlement.

"As far as we know ma'am. According to my Marines the Galactica left him there for fear of him being a Cylon agent. Those Marines had no proof of that or any way to contact Colonel Tigh and ask him about it either. So they played it smart. My Marines did what they were trained to do in that type of situation. Prevent a possible enemy combatant from causing harm to them or your Raptor crews. They're not Investigators or cops sir. They detained him and pushed him up to higher while keeping him secure" Replied the Major sounding increasingly irate that the actions of his men were being questioned. He knew they had been in the right.

"Regardless they could have been a little gentler" Said the XO colonel Sean Branson.

"Where is Mr Doral now?" Asked Commander Jason Riggs, he agreed with the actions of the Marines and wasn't going to take any disciplinary action.

"He's in sickbay sir" Replied Major Steel

"Did the CMO say what was making him sick?" Asked Lt Forsen

"No, he didn't. I believe he is running a workup on him right now. I have two Marines assigned to watch him as well, just in case"

"Assigned to watch him?" Asked the CAG with a tone that made Major Steel think she didn't approve.

"He's a civilian and the Galactica left him there for a reason and until I know why he won't be without two armed guards at any moment in time. And that is not up for discussion" He said forcibly back.

He saw her eyes momentarily bulge and she quickly said back "last time I checked you didn't run this ship"

"Id stick to flying Vipers ma'am and leave personnel security to those of us who are trained for it"

"That's enough! Major Steel is correct. The circumstances of which he came to us does cause me some concern. He'll stay under guard but we wont restrict his movement. See to it that he gets quarters once he is out of sickbay" He looked around for a moment waiting for anyone else to say anything.

"Alright then Dismissed. Make your departments ready to jump inside of two hours. I want everyboby not on duty for the next two hours in their racks. Angel I would like you to stay for a few minutes." Said the Commander as he dismissed the members of the senior staff that were still alive. Major Jessica "Angel" Burton didn't say anything as the hatches closed. She was nervous. "I wanted to apologize for the other day. It was unprofessional and uncalled for. You're a damn good officer and I would hate to lose you. Please accept my apology?" asked the Commander with the sadness in his voice as clear as the sun. Jessica only moved to hug him. As they hugged she said "Of course sir, you know your like a father to me" she said as she remembered her now dead father. Jason Riggs chuckled and said "I'm Glad were squared away. Now I need your pilots at a hundred percent okay? The next few days are going to be pretty crazy"

"You can count on us sir" She said as she saluted and exited out the hatch

COLONIAL FIFTH FLEETS LAST KNOWN POSITION

With a flash the Therion appeared where the fifth fleet was last known to be.

"Sir Dradis shows clear, no contacts"

"Damn it" Said Riggs. "Once they got word of the attack Admiral Willington probably booked it back to the colonies"

"But there hasn't been any counter attack by the fifth fleet. We would have known about it. A single message would have taken six hours to reach out this far. It would have taken some time to reorganize and regroup the fleet too. They were doing war game exercises after all. We didn't register a single Omega Distress beacon belonging to any ship from the fifth fleet either." Said Colonel Branson as looked at his commander.

"Which means they haven't even gotten in the fight yet" Replied Riggs realizing the implications.

"We need to get back to the colonies like now" Said Branson as he went to give the orders to jump back.

PICON 42 HOURS AFTER THE INITIAL ATTACK

Captain Paige Terrence woke with the sound of centurions entering her cell again. For the last twenty hours she had been tortured by an old man in what she had guessed to be his early 60's, she was tied down to a bed frame with no mattress, the wire springs digging into the skin on her back. He had asked her random information on Admiral Corman and every time she refused to answer he would hit her with a stun baton or would begin to peel back her fingernails and toenails. He would then start to slap her, eventually elbowing her in the stomach. He had repeatedly slapped her across the face to keep her awake throughout the night. Her wrists and ankles were bleeding from where she had been struggling against the ropes holding her against the bed posts. The room was cold and wet making her naked body even more uncomfortable, it smelled of blood, Vomit and other bodily functions. The man had raped her a half a dozen times the first day she had arrived but hadn't been sexual with her since. She was surprised she hadn't been killed yet. He had used her personal information gained from her fleet dossier against her but she hadn't answered any of his questions which just made the man angrier. Her stomach was growling, as she hadn't eaten anything since the morning of the attack. She doubt she would be able to eat anything anyway. Her throat was dry from the hours of screaming and she could only manage small movements without causing pain. She was so weak she could barely keep her eyes open. Her leg was in a cast; her wrist had been broken when a centurion had thrown her into the cell and she could no longer move it. The Centurions approached and undid the ropes tying her to the bed post. She began to shake with fear. Its cold mechanical hands picked her up and threw her over its shoulder taking the breath out of her lungs as it did. She winced in pain yet was too exhausted to struggle and she couldn't scream. The Centurion carried her down a series of stairways and halls and finally into a small shower room where the old man was standing 'This is it, he's gonna kill me' She thought as it approached the man. "Put her down over there" The centurion to her surprise gently set her down on the cold metal floor. The old man just stood there and looked at her "I will say you looked so much better when we first met" He looked her up and down and then said "But don't worry we'll get you cleaned up and made to look pretty again." The door opened and a man who she guessed was in his early thirties walked in. Her vision was hazy thou and she could barely make out his face. "Five, get her cleaned up. There's a pair of clothes over on the bench for when you're done." He walked up closer to the man and she couldn't hear what else he said 'I can't believe they look like us now' She thought as the Man the older one had called five walked over to stand over her. "You have a very athletic and toned body. You take care of yourself. That's good. You may make a fine choice for someone" He said as he turned on the cold water that nearly sent her into shock. He had a rag and began to scrub the dirt and grit from her body. He was rough as went over every inch of her sore and exhausted body. The shower lasted for five minutes before he stood up and turned off the water. "Now can you dress yourself? Well not your pants probably but that's okay" He threw a tank top and jacket at her which she picked up with her left hand. She immediately forced her tired arms to put it over her head and she pulled it down. He then put the pants on over her cast and pulled them up to her mid-thigh where she grabbed it from him. "You have spirt. I like that"

"Frak you" She managed to say with her sore throat. He quickly back handed her across the face with surprising speed. "That's not very nice. I've been so kind to you" He motioned to the Centurion which walked over and picked her up again. "Take her" The centurion walked around a series of corners and then outside. Walking up to the metal gate to the prison where she had been kept. 'At least my suffering is over'. She was pretty sure she was about to be killed. As the gate opened she saw thousands of tents and wooden structures being put up. Thousands of POW's were being pushed around by the Cylons. Many were laying in rows being tended to by Paramedics and Doctors. She noticed almost all of the people lying on the ground were in similar shape to her. 'What is this a POW camp" She like everyone else in the fleet had seen the footage of what the cylons did to prisoners. She tried mentally to prepare herself for what was coming. The Centurion continued to carry her to a large building that looked almost like a hospital. The centurion carried her into a room with a single bed in the middle. The nearly seven meter tall robot threw her onto the bed with little care. It then went and stood guard outside. She immediately gasped for breath. Almost immediately the old man walked in and said "Good Morning Captain." Said the cylon who introduced himself for the first time as John as he walked into the cell. She felt her body go cold again as she began to tremble. Instinctively she looked around for a weapon. "No please don't get up. I just want to let you know that I'm not going to torture you anymore." with that Paige huffed and rolled her eyes. "What? You don't believe us? We could have killed you and all those aboard the disabled battlestars, but we didn't. No we have something else in mind for you. If you cooperate, we won't kill you and you might actually enjoy your new life here." said the old man as he walked out, Paige knew he had said every word forcefully hating it. "Oh and a doctor will be by later to look at your leg, just don't try anything captain, we know Admiral Corman had you trained in self-defense. In fact you received your training from some individuals who right now are giving us a lot of trouble. But I know all the fun we had earlier has left you just so exhausted. So I doubt you will" With that he left and a young female entered the room with a medic's kit followed by what looked like a doctor

Paige smiled she knew that if her Self-defense instructors were alive then the cylons were in for a world of hurt. The two women began administering an IV and stitching up her many cuts and lacerations as well as setting her wrist so that it would heal correctly. It took them the better part of an hour to tend to all of her injuries. All three of them were then taken back outside and put into cabins with civilians. The cabin was small, no more than eight feet long by four feet wide. Paige could tell it had been hastily constructed. The Cylons were making sure that the military personnel didn't try anything. Although none of them were in any condition to do so. A lone woman walked down the streets taking pictures of the camp that was only now being set up. Paige guessed millions were kept within its confines. She laid her head down on the floor after taking a drink of water and fell asleep instantly.

BATTLESTAR THERION

With a flash the Therion appeared over the moon of Trevor near Caprica. Instantly vipers were launched from the flight pods and immediately went about setting up a defensive perimeter. The raptors left the flight pods and headed for the colonies to search for what few survivors were left. She had defeated two Basestars and hadn't been seen in over twenty four hours.

CAPRICA 45 HOURS AFTER THE INTIAL ATTACK

Raptor 239 piloted by Lt Haley Aaron arrived silently over the now occupied colony. Jumping in nearly thirty minutes out she immediately powered down non-critical system and coasted into the colony. Hundreds of thousands of Centurions were on the surface rounding up civilians and killing what military forces were left on the planet that weren't in hiding or already taken as prisoners. She instantly registered twenty three baseships over Caprica and thousands of Raiders spread out. The Cylons were patrolling the space and surrounding area around the colony. She saw the remains of forty three more. Floating all around the colonies were the disabled Colonial defense Satellites that had been shut down by the CNP. Twelve Colonial battlestars were floating destroyed in the space around Caprica, with eight hundred other ships that had been destroyed by the cylons. There was so much electromagnetic interference from the amount of nukes that had detonated in orbit that Dradis was useless for the time being. She was forced to fly using mark one eyeball. She flew close near the destroyed hulk of the Columbia to use as cover. The hull of the once proud warship was split straight through the alligator head of the ship. One of its flight pods had been blown completely off. Numerous holes and ruptures lined the ship from the many nuclear and conventional missiles she had been hit with. As she flew under the still attached flight pod she saw another raptor floating nearby but still intact.

"Another survivor maybe?" She decided to signal it. She looked threw her cockpit and signaled it, the raptor signaled back. They initiated line of sight Communications and she heard "Colonial Raptor, Colonial Raptor this is Raptor 816 of the battlestar Zeus, please respond" "Raptor 815 this is Raptor 239 of the battlestar Therion confirm identity with recognition codes immediately." she said knowing that it could be a Cylon trick used to hunt down survivors and eliminate them. She waited for a few seconds before her ECO said "Got em Star, their good. Let's send the rendezvous coordinates and head on home."

"No I don't want us to miss any other survivors, let's get some shots of the ground" she said quickly. She was silently holding out hope that her sisters and her Niece had made it. She knew her sister had been aboard the Olympic over Picon when the attacks happened. "Alright no longer than we have to thou. Last thing I want is the Cylons seeing us."

"Agreed Hunter alright let's take her over the southern hemisphere near Delphi." said Star as the other Raptor jumped back to its ship. For the next four hours they continued to take pictures of the destruction that was Caprica and they witnessed a Marine Divisions last stand near Oasis. But what shocked them most were the massive POW camps that were being built. The Colony wasn't even secured yet and they were already building Prison camps. Millions of Colonials were being rounded up and put into the camps. They were extensive with what she guessed were thousands of hastily constructed buildings. When she jumped her raptor back to the Therion she was shocked to see the Therion, The Zeus and the hospital ship Comfort. Surrounding the ships were twenty four Venir class fast attack frigates and four Brenton class heavy cruisers. "Therion this is Raptor 239, were back, glad to see our new friends found you."

"Roger that Star, bring her on home"

Commander Jason Riggs and the CO of the Zeus and the Comfort were inside the wardroom discussing their next move "We can't hope to retake any of the Colonies as of now. The Cylon forces there are too strong. We wouldn't last ten minutes."

"I agree" said Commander Amy Barnes, of the Comfort, "we need to find the fifth fleet or what's left of it anyways."

"We think there preparing for a counterattack but we don't know where they might launch it." Said Riggs as he brought up the list of destroyed battlestars. There were 68 on the list with twelve more listed as unknown.

"Well that's a lot of battlestars that didn't get destroyed" Said Commander Thomas McNamara as he read the list with watery eyes.

"Most were disabled by the CNP virus, and boarded by the cylons. They took the crews and put the battlestars into a geosynchronous orbit over nearby moons. We don't know where the crews are being imprisoned but you can bet there aren't very many Marines with them. Most of the ships not listed are from the Second fleet. With a few from the Fourth. We believe those fleets were disabled and boarded. The first fleet has been completely destroyed except for a few battlestars and most of the third fleet has been lost as well. Minus us and the Acropolis apparently. Solaria is gone along with the Night Flight." said Riggs knowing that the cylons were probably torturing the crews of those disabled battlestars. They likely wouldn't have had to fire a shot if they used the CNP. They probably lowered the Oxygen levels in the ship and just waited.

"No probably not very many Marines" Echoed Command McNamara

THERION PILOT REC ROOM

The members of the Battleaxes squadron were sitting around the table playing a game of cards. They weren't on duty for another six hours.

"So the Marines really treated that guy like the enemy?" Asked Lt Tommy "Gator" Lane

"Yeah it was despicable. Still pisses me off thinking about it" Said Haley Aaron as she took a sip of ambrosia.

"Like what was going through their minds when they decided he was an enemy combatant? Like any human would support the cylons after what they did. Its absurd" Said Jessica as she laid down a pair of cards

"Guys I think were missing the bigger picture. Were talking about Marines. Not exactly the brightest bunch out there if you ask me" Said Marissa as she folded. The assembled group of pilots laughed

"Oh hey speaking of our civie" Said Haley as she got up quickly and went outside "Mr. Doral, come on in, play some cards with us" Then she noticed the two Marines behind him. "Come on, have some Ambrosia"

He hesitated a moment before smiling back at her.

"Thank you, I must say you are one of the kinder people on this ship." He said as they walked in and took a seat. Several of the pilots nodded and said hello and introduced themselves. The Two Marines entered behind him and stood a few paces back.

"I do believe this is the Pilots Rec room Marines. Last time I checked you two aren't pilots so you can wait outside" Captain Steven "Bareback" Penny.

"We take our orders from Major Steel sir" Replied the Corporal immediately. All the officers in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at the two Marines. "You want to say that again Marine."

"What do you guys do a cavity search every time he uses the frakking latrine too?" Said Lt Lane sarcastically. The others around the table chuckled at his comment

"Our orders sir, are to stay with Mr. Doral at all times. Those orders are from Major Steel with the blessings of Commander Riggs. If you have a problem sir, they can address it but our orders stand"

"Okay then, well how about you keep watch from outside the hatch. Sound good?" Said Marissa looking at them with a little grin and raised eyebrows daring the Marines to test her.

The Two Marines looked at each other and nodded. They were tired of being treated like the bad guys.

"Are all Marines like that?" Asked Mr. Doral as he was given a hand of cards.

"No, no just ours sadly" Said Jessica as she filled his cup up. Captain Penny quickly dealt a new set of cards to everyone.

Outside the Two marines looked at each other again and shook their heads.

PICON POW CAMP

It had been over 4 days since the Cylon attack on Picon fleet headquarters. Her leg was getting worse and the headaches were still coming. She had spent most of the last 48 hours sleeping until about forty Marines from one of the Divisions stationed on Picon had launched a mortar attack on the Cylon guard posts. Their first few rounds had taken out several of the guard posts near her tent and had startled her from the sleep she had been in. The firefight had lasted for an hour until the Marines had withdrawn. She had tried to get the medics that were with her to go and get some other fleet personnel but the Cylons were enforcing a lockdown until they had more troops to maintain security. The Cylons were heavily engaged with eight Marine and Army Divisions in the Countryside of Picon. Nearly ten thousand centurions had been destroyed by the advancing Marine Division closest to the camp she was in. The troops were fighting with a ferocity never before seen by the cylons. They had been unable to nuke the bases before the troops had deployed with most of their equipment. As a result the Cylons had landed over eight million centurions on the planet. They had no idea that the troops would refuse to surrender and fight to the death as the 56th Infantry division had done. They had counted on their bombs wiping most of them out. Only 220 soldiers had been captured from the 56th Infantry division. Over 18,000 Centurions had been destroyed attempting to overwhelm the surrounded division. It was unlike anything they had ever seen in the first Cylon war. Their courage was admired by the human model cylons and the 220 survivors were aboard a cylon Baseship in orbit awaiting treatment for their wounds. They would later perform several experiments on them.

Captain Paige Terrence got up from her bed, wobbling over to her improvised crutches made from two long sticks and started to walk outside. It hurt like hell to even move. She barely could anyway. Despite the lockdown she made it over to the next hutch with the medics helping her along the way. Inside were a dozen Colonial Pilots from different ships and bases. All were wounded to some degree or another. The cylons had beaten them to the point where they could no longer walk. She didn't doubt that they had all gone through the same thing she did. Soon the sound of gunfire could be heard over the mountains as the 13th Colonial Army division battled the cylons in the Piconese Mountain range. The Colonial troops just kept coming and the cylons only had so many forces left on the planet. She was still hoping that the fleet would somehow manage to retake Picon. But she knew that it was unlikely seeing how bad the fleet had lost in orbit.

CAPRICA- DELPHI- CYLON COMMAND CENTER

With screens lining the wall and centurions coming and going one knew that the War on Caprica had only just begun.

"Four, Four! That's how many gods damn divisions of frakking Marines we're up against in those mountains. And we have no idea where they went in those mountains. Not to mention the numerous battlestars that managed to survive not counting the Galactica and the other ships in its fleet." Said a Six model in exasperation

"It's only been four days six, doubtless the Colonials are preparing for a counterattack. We have to be ready. But the forces chasing the Galactica fleet need reinforcements. They do have an agent in the fleet that's transmitting their position and we are engaging every thirty three minutes."

"Dispatch another twenty baseships to assist them. Now we need to find these other battlestars. We know a lot of them are heavily damaged and chances are their preparing for their final battle. But I'm more worried about the land battles. We didn't anticipate this" Said Cavil as he read the latest report

"We also didn't anticipate the Colonials not putting the CNP on all of their ships like we originally planned. We had to move up our timetable. We weren't expecting a fight of this size" Said a two with an exasperated look.

"Yes. The Marines sure have hampered our plans but it's only a matter of time before they are either forced to surrender or we kill them." Said the three that had only just joined them from the field.

"But the citizens of Delphi! Well never have enough to initiate our plans" said a Simon model.

"We have plenty of subjects for you to use. Don't worry brother." said cavil as read the number of humans that were in the POW camps. "Forty two Million in total on Caprica alone. Two million are military. However most of the military personnel are in pretty bad shape. I know I had some personal fun with some of the women" said cavil reading the report with a smile on his face

"That's more than enough" said Simon as he smiled.

"Yes our plans on Picon are in serious jeopardy thou, the Colonial Army is advancing rapidly on one of our Camps. The Centurions were defeated last night and three divisions are now advancing almost unopposed."

"We could just nuke the camp and the Army"

"No, we want Picon to be habitable, and a lot of those prisoners may serve some use to us. All of the Military servicemembers were put through quite the ringer. I doubt they would be able to assist the Colonial Army or Marines. It may just bog them down dealing with all the wounded"

"Are you proposing we let the Colonial Army take the Camp?"

As they cylons discussed their plans, a Colonial Marine zeroed in on their command base. He spoke silently into his radio

"Fire!"

Twenty two seconds later six 82mm high explosive mortars slammed into the building where the cylons had been coordinating their offensive. The Marines had designated it a command and control center due to its numerous radio antennas. The rounds detonated on contact killing everyone inside the building. The Marines Lance Corporal smiled as he withdrew back to his squad.

THERION 4 DAYS AFTRE THE CYLON ATTACK

Lt Amy Forsen lay down gently in her bunk. As she closed her eyes the events of the past two days hit her. Previously she had managed to sleep only out of exhaustion. This was her first regular duty shift since the attacks had happened. She didn't have to be back on duty for another ten hours. She doubted she would get any sleep. She knew that her family was gone and that her life was never going to be the same again. Yet she felt bad for thinking of just her family, billions of others had died. Why hadn't she? She cradled her knees into her chest and cried. Images flew through her mind as she cried. Images as vivid as if they were happening at that very moment. She imagined the fires and the screams as her family died. She got up out of her bunk knowing no sleep would come to her that night, or anytime soon and walked to the head to wipe the tears off her face.

Commander Jason Riggs was in his quarters silently staring at the wall. Knowing that the Colonies were still burning yet powerless to stop it. He hated this feeling of defeat. He knew that the Marines and Army were still fighting but he just didn't know what to do. He couldn't take his two battlestars into a fight over a colony and hope to win. He knew the Marines and the Army would fight until their dying breaths. He felt sad to know that he was powerless to stop any of it.

Commander Amy Barnes silently laid herself down to sleep letting her long blonde hair hang over her bunk. She too cried herself to sleep. For eighteen hours her ship had taken on over four thousand wounded service members. She had seen the rows and rows of the wounded. She knew that she would never forget their faces much less their screams. She had thought the Zeus finding her ship had been a miracle, now she wondered if those two battlestars were about to go on a suicide mission.

CIC BATTLESTAR THERION

Colonel Sean Branson was watching the Dradis as he heard a sob from the communication station. He looked up to see Ensign Jaime Harris with a tear going down her cheek. He knew that the whole crew was depressed. The colonies had been lost. While the ground troops were still fighting after four days, The Colonel knew it was just a matter of time before they were defeated. The Zeus had lifted their spirit's a little but he knew they were so down that many were just simply sitting in their racks, crying themselves to sleep. It hurt him to realize that there was nothing that could be done about it; even the pilots were crying themselves to sleep. It seemed even their ego's weren't invincible.

In her bunk Lieutenant Haley Aaron was trying not to think of her niece and her sisters. But she couldn't stop the tears as she saw his seven year old face in her head. She couldn't help but wonder if he had made it out of the city before the bombs had fallen. She didn't know if he had been aboard the Olympic for family day or if her family had even gone. When she had realized that the Cylons hadn't nuked Delphi she was overjoyed only to find that the 23rd Marine Division had given the citizens very little time to escape. They had held the cylons off for nearly a day but they had eventually retreated. She had seen the long line of survivors that were heading into the caves of the mountains. She just wanted closure. The sheet that covered her bunk was opened. She turned embarrassed that her face was covered by tear stained makeup.

"Haley" Her co-pilot quietly laid down beside her and put his arms around her.

"They're all gone, everyone's gone" She said between sobs.

He cradled her while she cried. She didn't care that he was just a friend and it was inappropriate, or that it was against regulations. She needed the comfort. She buried her head in his shoulder as he held her silently. She fell asleep in his arms after nearly ten minutes of crying. Lieutenant Michael Wilson sighed as he realized that she was asleep. He hadn't said a word the whole time she had cried. Sometimes it was best to just let people cry. He couldn't help but smile that she had fallen asleep on him. She had been so strong, not just for herself but for others as well. Encouraging others whenever she could, trying her best to lift spirits. She was the only reason he was still going. Her head rested on his chest while he fell asleep. He made sure to close the blind before the CAG walked in and started yelling at them for fraternization.

PICON FLEET HEADQUARTERS

With most of the station inaccessible due to the damage that had been inflicted in the attack, Cavil knew the station was useless. But he wanted it left here as a reminder of their triumph over the Colonials. A symbol of their defeat. He looked around the room with triumph. Bodies were strewn about, several centurions lay around the entrances destroyed. 'They had fought hard but futilely'

PICON POW CAMP 5 DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK

The Artillery and long range MLRS missile strikes could now be visibly seen to the prisoners as they shook the ground nearly two miles away. Astonishingly the Marines had managed to break the Cylon lines and were now advancing towards the POW camp. Every single centurion available was being mustered to meet the advancing divisions head on near a small highway intersection that the cylons still held. For the next two days hardly any of the prisoners could sleep. The sounds and smells of the battle were too much for many of them. Very few of the Military personnel here were ground combat troops. Most of them were aboard battlestars or orbital stations that had been disabled. There were very few Marines in the camp. The Fleet personnel didn't train for this kind of combat. They were nervous.

"Alright listen up the Ground pounders are getting close, and the Cylons around the Camp are thinning out. They may get desperate and start executing us if they think they're gonna lose us. So those of you that can walk go and spread the word to all the other cabins. Stay inside and out of sight. I know we haven't eaten in a day but we're just gonna have to suck it up" Ordered Paige as she watched a dragon missile knock a raider out of the sky. Her leg wasn't hurting as bad now, she guessed the break was likely minor and not that serious but it still hurt her to walk on it. Her wrist and ribs were what hurt her more than anything else. There were over six hundred thousand fleet Personnel in the camp alone. A mortar round struck the guard post just outside her cabin and she dove to the floor.

"Holy Frak our guys aren't messing around" Said a Petty officer as he looked out the door to see only the support beams of the tower left.

"Yeah, I have a feeling we're about to see a lot more" She heard Petty Officer Rorles say back. Paige knew the man was scared and so was she.

Suddenly a pair of centurions appeared in the street and Paige saw them turn in the direction of the field behind her cabin and start shooting. She ducked back down. If the Centurions themselves were engaging that meant the Army must be really close. She looked up at the ceiling as the Cabin shook from another mortar strike. The sounds of the gunfire and approaching battle were drowning out almost everything else.

"Whoa!" Shouted Rorles as a round came through the cabin. Paige ducked down along with everyone else as the machine gun it had come from adjusted its fire onto the Two Cylons outside. Paige lifted her head up just enough to see the tracers tear through the two centurions and send them to the ground in a heap. This was insanse she thought as more and more tracers could be seen. That's when she heard voices

"Bravo team keep your spacing, five meter intervals. Watch for contact on the left. Wedge it out dudes"

"Colonial Fleet! Who's out there!" She yelled out.

"Colonial Army, 25th Airborne Division. Stay inside until we clear the Cylons out" The sergeant yelled out as his fire team moved forward.

"Roger that!" She replied looking around the cabin at all the smiles on the faces of her fellow fleet personnel.

The 25th Airborne Division had jumped into the field behind the Main Camp in the middle of the night, and had been waiting ever since for their mortar teams and artillery to move into position to destroy the guard towers and machine gun emplacements. The Cylons were unable to coordinate an effective defense as the Paratroopers rampaged throughout the Prison camp, quickly taking out over six thousand centurions. The remaining Cylons began to retreat after only an hour. The 25th set up a thin defensive perimeter around the camp that held over four million colonials. Their medics were now working tirelessly to triage all of the new patients they had.

Soon the 1st Armored Division rolled through the main camp with their massive tanks and other armored assets. A Medical brigade quickly moved into the camp as more and more troops poured in and began assisting the medics.

General Abraham Craig observed his troops moving casualties to the large grey building at the end of the airfield that had been a hospital before the Cylon attack. He was proud of troops. They had performed above any and all expectations he had had. Now he knew he was in a tight situation. He had a responsibility to the people here to protect them. He could continue to go on the offensive an link up with Third Corps near the equator if he wanted but General Stanten had ordered the Army divisions to spread out their divisions and not to consolidate for fear of nuclear strike. So he decided he and his men would move to the east forty miles and secure the scrapyard there. He was hoping it would have ships he could use.

He had over six hundred thousand fleet personnel in the camp, and although they were all in bad shape, he knew they could very easily crew any old ships they might find. What he especially needed now were pilots. His aviation assets could only be deployed with Aerial fighter support. Right now he didn't have that unlike the two Marine Divisions thirty miles to his western flank. Both of which were now on their way here.

He had sent the 25th Airborne division to scout out the scrapyard and see if they could salvage anything.

General Lee had reported back an hour ago that the scrapyard appeared untouched and they were securing it now. He decided that he would go out amongst the now freed prisoners and try to find the highest ranking officers among them. He was a Three star General, so even if it was an admiral, it would have to be a Vice Admiral for them to be equal in rank. As he walked among the Cabins he could see his medics had done a good job. Every cabin was marked with how many people were inside and their condition. Ranging from routine, urgent and surgical and from Cat one, two and three. He saw most of them weren't surgical. Likely they had all been tortured but not to the point that they would require surgery. Just a lot of recovery time.

He noticed a commander standing near a Doctor and walked over.

"General Graig, a pleasure to meet the man who saved us" She said upon seeing him approach.

"The pleasure is mine commander. How are you?" He asked her seeing her arm in a sling.

"Broke my arm but not too bad. Cylons didn't put me through as much as they did the others. They forced me to watch instead" She replied making blood boil.

"Bastards, we've got them on the run. But I've halted our advance until we can take care of you people. Our DIVARTY will continue to harass and force them back thou" He said to her

"DIVARTY?" She asked him quizzingly

"Division artillery, our long range guns." She nodded in reply.

"Good. In the meantime we have several pilots who claim to know where the Cylons took our disabled vessels. We have enough crew and pilots to man them all again if we wanted but most aren't up to the task right now. Their just hurt too bad."

"What are you proposing Commander?" He asked her with a slight smile

"We have a few ships here on the airfield, we take what personnel are able along with some of your Marines and we re-take a battlestar and some other ships we could use" She said back with a smile of her own.

"I like the idea of having some air support but what do you plan to do about the baseships in orbit?" He asked her.

"Nothing yet, I plan to link-up with the Fifth fleet. They never even got into the fight. We link up with them, give them our intel and we can re-take the whole colony"

"Alright Commander, I like it. Take however many Marines you need and lets go get us a battlestar."

"Yes sir" She replied with a crisp salute.

A few hours later Marine Lieutenant Jacob Stark of the Colonial Marine Corps 39th Expeditionary unit was overseeing his men into the Spectre assault craft that would take them to the moon where the Cylons were storing the captured Colonial ships. His unit had arrived behind the Colonial Army only an hour ago and now they were getting ready to leave the surface. A ragtag group of colonial fleet personnel were with them as they prepared to take off. They would stay on the assault craft while he and his Marines went and secured the ship. He noticed a young captain with a cast on her leg and another on her wrist sit down. 'How is she supposed to be effective' He thought to himself. He couldn't help but feel attracted to her however. Despite the bruise on the side of her face and the cut on her forehead she was beautiful. He shook his head and told himself to focus.

Within ten minutes they were airborne and soon the craft jumped. He looked out the port hole and shook his head. To him it looked like half the fleet was here. Ships of every kind and shape. Thousands of them were in orbit around the moon. Including A dozen battlestars, the ship he was on was headed for the battlestar Olympic. A mercury class battlestar. All three shuttles docked and the now freed POW's ran to secure the ship and wipe the CNP from the ships systems. The Marines were running to the ships armory securing weapons and vital areas of the ship. They passed by a hundred bodies of Marines who had died to defend the ship. As soon as they reached the CIC they saw the body of Commander Joseph Wright. His hands around the throat of a human model Cylon with eight bullets in his back. Slowly the ships systems came on line and they began the ten minute long process of wiping the hard drives of the CNP. The Marines surprisingly encountered no centurions aboard. The ship was now back in the hands of the Colonials. A fully intact and undamaged battlestar. They were either very lucky, or the Cylons were just plain stupid he thought as he ordered his platoon to begin a room by room search.

"Plot a jump near the asteroid field. Well use it as cover" Said Commander Sammie Tanner as she took command of the ship from the Marines.

Paige took up her station as tactical officer. Commander Tanner walked over to her and gave her a once over after about ten minutes.

"Captain, go get some rest, I don't plan on taking us into combat anytime soon" As Paige began to open her mouth to protest the commander lowered her head and gave her a stern look. She silently nodded and began limping down to the sickbay.

After arriving in sickbay, Paige noticed the medical personnel that had come with them had been quick to get to work, very quickly being overrun with patients. Most of the military personnel onboard had been severely beaten by the Cylons. They had all volunteered for this mission but some had only made their injuries worse by coming.

"Over here captain let me take a look" Said a Medic as she sat down on a gurney.

"Thank you" She said as the medic lifted up her shirt to reveal her bruised abdomen from her many hours of torture.

"Let me get you some pain killers, then ill have you lay down for a few hours okay"

THERION TREVOR MOON

Lieutenant Haley Aaron woke up looking into the face of her ECO. She moaned slightly and he opened his eyes and said "Good morning sunshine. How are you feeling?" He said with a slight smile as she snuggled even tighter into his chest.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so emotional" She said as she stretched.

"No, don't be sorry. Don't even worry about it. Its okay, you know I'm always here for you." He said as he rubbed her back

She smiled looking up at him and said "Thank you, it feels good to hear that"

'Damn she's amazing' thought Michael Wilson as she sat up. "We have pre-flight in an hour. We should get ready"

"Yeah.." He was about to say more before she kissed him and threw him backwards back onto his bunk. He stared up at her his heart beginning to race. "Just thought I'd let you know how thankful I really am" Then she rolled over off him.

Lt Wilson sat there dumbstruck as she walked out; when she was out of the hatch a small grin appeared on the edge of his mouth. Maybe things weren't so bad after all.

Gearing up in the ready room was slightly awkward as he couldn't help but keep stealing glances at her. Their mission was to scout out the colonies and attempt to gain intelligence.

PICON

General Craig could hardly believe the luck he was having now. The 25th Infantry Division had successfully secured over three thousand Viper Mark Sixes. They were still very capable fighters. But most importantly were the transports and civilian vessels he could now use. There still eight million colonial troops on the planet and he knew many more millions of civilians. He had to get them off world. The Vipers were being loaded onto the Cargo ships that were being brought back into service and the Civilians and fleet personnel were being loaded onto shuttles and barracks ships to send them to the Olympic. He was getting awfully lucky. He was cautious as he knew luck only lasted so far. Evacuating the civilians would take the better part of two days.

For the last fourteen hours the Therion had been sending out raptors and Probes to search for survivors. Lt Aaron had intercepted communications between two Cylon baseships over Virgon. They had learned from the intercepted transmission that the destruction of the colonies hadn't been nearly as thorough as they had thought. Commander Jason Riggs looked at the report in his hands that gave him the highlights of the intercept.

 _3 Colonial Battlestars Destroyed by Cylon forces over Aerilon attempting to retake Colony._

 _Four Cruisers escorting-Location now unknown after FTL jumping from battle._

 _2 Colonial Raptors spotted over Leonis attempting to scout planet's surface believe to belong to Battlestar Pegasus_

 _4 baseships destroyed by 3 Colonial battlestars near Sagattarion. Identity of battlestars unknown_

 _3 Baseships destroyed by battlestars Pegasus and Mercury- Boarding of Pegasus unsuccessful._

 _2 baseships destroyed over Gemenon by unknown number of colonial units attempting to retake Colony prior to Fifth fleet attack. 1 colonial heavy cruiser destroyed._

 _Finding of 67 remaining Battlestars remains top priority._

 _Colonial Marine Divisions have successfully retaken Picon after linking up near the destroyed capital. Cylon units on surface defeated at 1634. Remaining Centurions on surface of Picon now number less than one million_

 _Colonial Army Units have taken POW camp and are evacuating prisoners to unknown location. Ships in orbit have withdrawn outside of weapons range after Colonial Army unit launched surprise attack with Spectre gunships and launched nuclear strike on orbital Baseships. Six baseships destroyed as a result. Centurions from Aquaria, Gemenon, Leonis, Aerilon and Scorpia are to rendezvous with basestars near Picon for renewed invasion by 2200 hours._

 _Basestars are too continue to track Galactica fleet and attempt to destroy it. 68 Baseships now designated to Galactica task force._

 _56 designated to occupation of the Colonies._

 _Remaining baseships to resume search for Colonial 5_ _th_ _and 7_ _th_ _Fleet – 25 battlestars each and four hundred and sixty warships and other Combat support ships._

 _7_ _th_ _Fleet is believed to be headed for Promar sector._

 _Location of 5_ _th_ _Fleet unknown, not seen since returning to Gemenon, 5_ _th_ _fleet suffered minimal casualties during engagement. 8 baseships destroyed before 5_ _th_ _fleet withdrew. Colonial losses at three heavy cruisers, four destroyers and eight frigates._

 _7th Fleet is at Full strength. Fleet did not; repeat did not suffer any casualties as a result of the attacks due to inactive status, believed ordered by Admiral Nagala to assume readiness state prior to attack due to unknown reasons. 7_ _th_ _Fleet units observed scouting Canceron and Tauron for civilian survivors._

 _Battlestars Zeus, Therion, Acheron, Acropolis and Sagatarus not seen since engaging Cylon forces near the asteroid belt. All battlestars are believed to be alone at this time except Zeus with the Hospital ship Comfort and four heavy cruisers._

Riggs sighed as he read this. The cylons were hunting down the Galactica and the 7th fleet in the Promar sector. He was glad the Marines had retaken Picon and were evacuating to an unknown location. He knew that it would be awhile before they got off and he decided not to reveal the Zeus just yet. The cylons didn't know they had linked up and he hoped to keep it that way. He was overjoyed to finally have some useable intelligence. He planned to make use of it. There were only 56 Basestars left in the Colonies, 135 had been destroyed in the six days since the attacks according to his Intel division. Not too bad for a fleet that had fought with its hands tied behinds its backs.

ASTEROID FIELD 8 DAYS AFTER THE FALL

The Colonial Fifth Fleet was stationary around the solar asteroid field. Twenty five battlestars were spread out among the four hundred other ships of the fleet. They had engaged the Cylon fleet over Gemenon and had destroyed eight baseships in the span of two hours. Thirty five baseships had then jumped in and Admiral Willington had ordered a withdraw. The fifth fleet could have defeated the Baseships but the Admiral didn't see the tactical gain as outweighing the loss they would suffer. He wanted to preserve his force as best he could. He had over a hundred thousand men and women under his command. He was focusing now on gathering what civilians he could and getting them to a place of safety. So far the fifth fleet had found and saved over a hundred civilian vessels.

BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC 8 DAYS AFTER THE FALL 1 DAYS AFTER RETRIEVING BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC

Captain Paige Terrence awoke with the sound of an explosion. The ship shook violently as the battlestar suffered an internal explosion. She was knocked off her hospital bed by the explosion as were several others. She cried out in pain as her leg hit the steel floor. The pain shot through her body like lightning. Tears began to swell in her eyes as explosions continued to rock the ship.

"Get me a sitrep!" Shouted the CMO. She heard gunfire from the down the hall and realized the ship had been boarded or there had been Centurions aboard to begin with. The hatch was thrown open and a centurion appeared. She gasped silently as it approached its machine guns pointed at her. She began to shake violently, the images of what the cylons had done to her and other POW's popping into her head. As the Centurion approached she began to cry. "No, oh gods no" She instantly threw her head to the ground as the centurions head blew apart. A piece of shrapnel embedded itself in her shoulder. She felt the warm liquid began to flow down her arm and onto the floor. Her breathing started to get shallow as she went into shock. "Medic!" shouted several people as they ran to assist

CAPRICA 5 DAYS AFTER THE RETREAT FROM DELPHI

Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion 29th Marine Infantry Regiment had set up dozens of IED's in the valley where they waited to ambush the cylons. Their chrome plated armor shining bright against the reflection of the sun. A sniper raised his powerful rifle and centered it on the centurion. He slowly put his finger on the trigger and began to squeeze. The battle began as several other snipers did the same.

CIC- BATTLESTAR THERION

Jason Riggs stood looking at the Dradis console wondering if he would ever see it full of green dots again. He looked at his XO, Colonel Sean Branson and remembered how they met. It was when he had led the massive military offensive against the SLA six years ago. He had ended up catching tom Zarek and practically ending the terrorist organization. The Colonel had been a Major at the time. He had been the CAG of the battlestar Acheron. His viper had been shot down and he had been taken prisoner by the rebels. The Marines had managed to rescue him after eight hours of brutal torture and interrogation. The SLA had wanted to know how many ships were in orbit. The Colonel was happy to tell him the entire Third fleet. The SLA had started to retreat after that. But they didn't know that the Third fleet had hit every single SLA base and safe house in all of the Colonies in a massive attack that made Adar, one of the most popular figures in the Colonies. His approval had started to fall after the Sagatarion massacre and the budget cuts in the fleet. While the Military budget had been massive, the cuts weren't large enough to hurt the build-up of arms. In fact the Military had trillions of cubits stockpiled over the years. In the event that war broke out they would be able to build and get whatever they needed. Lieutenant

Amy Forsen was silently watching the Dradis while tending to her regular duties. The Zeus was just off the bow of the Therion. With the Comfort directly behind. The cut on the side of her head was starting to heal after the long days and she had finally stopped thinking of her dead sisters as much as she had. Her blue eyes shifted from screen to screen as she watched them for anything that could go wrong. Her head was pounding from her headache that still hadn't gone away.

Commander Amy Barnes was at her station in the CIC of her ship the Comfort. Currently housing four thousand wounded Colonials. With a crew of three thousand five hundred, the hospital ship was crowded to say the least. Her interior space was radically different from other Mercury class battlestars. Her magazines were smaller. Her hanger bays had less space for fighters and instead were designed to take on numerous shuttles and transports. She had a small defensive fighter wing of forty vipers. Her weapons were her doctors. Over eight hundred were assigned to the ship. With less need for ammunition, she instead had large multi-deck medical bays that could house almost eight hundred patients each. She had five of these multi decked bays in the alligator head of the ship. The first level of each bay was designed for trauma, with several fully stocked operating rooms and ER stations. The second bay was ICU wards, the third and fourth were recovery and specialty wards. The Comfort could take on almost four thousand patients with little effort. Her surge capacity was just under six thousand. Amy Barnes had been in command for just over two years. She was keeping herself together for the sake of her crew. For the first two days she hadn't gotten any sleep. The last three days she had cried herself to sleep. But she refused to cry in front of her crew. She wanted, needed to be strong for them, to give them some hope. She bowed her head and closed her eyes, reliving those first few hours in seconds. She opened her eyes and brushed a strand of her blonde hair out of her face. The Marine at the door looked at his commander and smiled. She was highly respected by her crew; most had been with her since she had taken command two years ago at the age of thirty six. She had one daughter who had been on Picon the day of the attacks. Her ex-husband was the governor of Picon's chief of staff. Their marriage had always been rocky, with her always on deployments and him always working for the governor. They had split when he had supported the governor's controversial bill to reduce the military to a force necessary to defend the Colonies only with strict limitations on the amount of troops and spending. She wished he was still alive now. But she didn't regret the split with her ex-husband. She had gotten command of a Mercury. While it was a hospital ship. It was still a mercury class hospital ship. A Variant of the battlestar with minimal weapons and a very small defensive fighter wing, just forty vipers, but nearly two hundred raptors and dozens of shuttles. She considered herself lucky she hadn't lost any of her crew during the cylon attack. That in its self was no small miracle. Her ship had fired at the cylons, recovering wounded at the same time. She had jumped her ship along with the four other medical frigates that were with the Comfort to the asteroid field where she had found the battlestar Zeus. The Zeus had just finished off two baseships and was preparing to jump when she had jumped in. The commander of the Zeus Commander Thomas McNamara had led her ship away from the cylons. By rapidly jumping along the asteroid field they had avoided the cylons. Commander McNamara had launched raptor probes to the colonies in an attempt to find survivors. She was overjoyed when they had found the Therion.

BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC

Captain Paige Terrence tried to get her breathing under control. She was sobbing uncontrollably and breathing heavily. Seeing a Centurion after escaping from the POW camp rattled her to the coreThe Centurion had broken her wrist when it had thrown her into the cell. Now sitting on the infirmary of the battlestar Olympic, she had a piece of shrapnel in her shoulder and she was starting to get cold from the loss of blood. "Doc, Its Lieutenant Stark, you guys okay in here?" said Marine Lieutenant Stark as his Marines secured the surrounding hallways.

"Yeah I think so, specialist tend to Captain Terrence" said a male Major who was now the Chief Medical Officer aboard the Olympic. The Medic was at her side instantly. She winced as the medic pulled out the piece of shrapnel and began to close the wound. She suddenly felt herself being lifted onto the Bed. The medic started an IV instantly. She felt someone squeeze her hand and she looked to see Lieutenant Stark smiling weakly at her. She smiled back through the pain and then started to fall asleep due to the sedative she was getting from the medic.

CIC - BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC

Commander Sammie Tanner sighed as she heard the report; four hundred more personnel had been killed. The cylons had locked themselves in various compartments waiting for the lights to be turned back on, and to start their killing. The Marines had done an amazing job in preventing the Cylons from taking over the ship again. At the cost of forty one of their own. She needed Marines. The ship had taken moderate damage from the explosion when the cylons had detonated a charge near the ships armory. She couldn't keep taking casualties like this.

THERION 9 DAYS SINCE THE FALL

"It's time to hit the cylons where it hurts, we've done nothing but jump randomly away. Basically were running and that's bull. This is a Goddamn warship. Now I want some suggestions and I wanted them a week ago." Said Jason Riggs with a cold to his voice that meant he was pissed.

"Sir we still have ships that are damaged it could take weeks." Lt Forsen was cut off harshly by her Commanding officer

"NO!" He screamed "I don't want to hear frakking excuses I want it frakking done. Nothing else, I want somebody to tell me where we can hit the cylons and hard" Said Riggs as he looked around. He was tired of hiding and the XO shared his sentiment. Lt Forsen just looked straight ahead. McNamara and Barnes said nothing as they looked at the tactical plot.

"Well sir…. Look at the formation of the cylons, their moving entire divisions to Picon right? They know that we still have fleet units capable of inflicting massive amounts of damage on those transports. They've got em bunched up so their fighters don't have to spread out as far. Makes fighter coverage more easy. Overlapping their fields of fire too. To provide protection the baseships are spread out evenly too, what if we exploited that?" said Branson.

"What do you mean? Asked Barnes as she thought it over in her head. All of the commanders around the table started to get the same idea.

"Raptors!" Said McNamara "Loaded with Nukes and lots of em." finished Riggs with a smile

"Sir we should also look to exploit the depleted cylon forces around Caprica, they left only a few." And with that the commanders got down to true business. For six hours they planned and issued op orders to their ships. The pilots went through their pre-flight checks and began prepping their aircraft.

"Let's get this show on the road people" said Riggs as he walked into the CIC twelve hours later

"Action stations, Action Stations, Set condition one, all hands prepare for combat jump." Said Lt Forsen as she gave the thumbs up to her CO. The Therion moved slightly behind the moon. Waiting for the signal from the Zeus. Eighteen fast attack frigates accompanied the Therion.

Lieutenant Haley Aaron sat silently in her Raptor waiting for the word to launch. Her Raptor loaded to the Brim with Raybeam Nuclear anti-ship missiles. Thirty five other Raptors were waiting to head out with her. Major Jessica "Angel" Burton sat in the cockpit of her Viper silently waiting for the order to launch. All 316 Vipers of the Therion's Air wing were primed and ready to go. While the Therion had 380 Vipers aboard at the beginning of the attack, they had lost forty when they had sent the two squadrons to the Galactica and twenty four more pilots from when they had fought the baseships. All of them were waiting for the order to launch.

Lieutenant Amy Forsen was at the Tactical station in the CIC waiting for the signal that would send her into ship into combat once again. Her eyes were betraying her emotions. She wanted revenge. Her eyes were that of pure steel. But beneath they were shattered, she like many other had been wounded during the combat jump to Virgon. She had been unconscious for twelve hours. She didn't sleep for the next twenty eight hours, eventually crying herself to sleep in her bunk. Major Jason Steel sat at his command post waiting to give the order to his Marines. He had lost his wife and family in the attacks and he wanted to satisfy, for a while at least, the burning hate he had for the cylons. Thirty Minutes later the signal came and the orders were given. Zeus had jumped to Caprica, which now had only five baseships guarding it. The four heavy Cruisers had gone with the Zeus to give her the edge. The Therion was jumping to Picon to buy the Marines and Army time to escape.

With a flash the Therion appeared over the once pristine and respected world. Fifteen baseships were in orbit over the equator that was the primary battle zone of the planet. Along with hundreds of transports that undoubtedly held Cylon Centurions. The Raptors jumped from their staging point, the Vipers shot out of the launch tubes headed for the oncoming Raiders less than three minutes out. The raptors implemented their part of phase one approximately sixty seconds after the Therion jumped in with the frigates behind her. Thirty six Raptors appeared inside the Cylons formation spread out strategically throughout their ranks. It took less than one second for their fire control computer to designate and target the enemy ships. The missiles sped out from under the wings and raced towards their targets. The raiders registered the new enemy contact but the Raptors had appeared inside their defense envelope a minute after the Therion had jumped in. The raiders were out of position and unable to intercept the dozens of nukes that were now flying towards the baseships. Dozens of Nuclear explosions rocked the space around the planet. Visible to the Marines and Soldiers still below. It caught the Cylons by complete surprise. They had had no contact with a Colonial Fleet unit for two entire days now. Each Raptor had been loaded with the two nukes and eight decoys.

PICON

The Marines were still loading up on the transports when the sky was suddenly lit up. Instinctively acting on training alone, they all ducked. Then they started to cheer. The explosions were clearly visible to them. Hundreds of them began to light up the night sky as the Cylon fleet lost another eight baseships and almost a third of its Centurion Army to the well-aimed nukes from the hell bent on revenge pilots of the battlestar Therion.

"Yeah, get some!" Shouted a Marine as he waved his fist in the sky. "My gods I thought the fleet had bought it. I'll be damned; the fleet pukes are kicking some ass" Said a young Marine Lieutenant.

"Took them damn flyboy's long enough" Several explosions sounded in the atmosphere. "Alright lets go get a move on, we've more than likely got incoming" 1.7 Million troops were loading up on what transports they had managed to secure. Mostly old Marine Corps and Army Barracks ships that had been in storage. A couple of vehicle Roll on/Roll Off cargo ships were being loaded up too. Drop ships were being used to carry the heavier equipment. They would be attached to the hulls of the barracks ships by docking collars and clamps. The problem was space. They just didn't have enough space for all of their vehicles. So the Generals made the decision to leave over fifty percent of their lightly armored vehicles behind. They figured one day they might be able to stage raids to come back and get them. But the Generals had all reached the same conclusion, they couldn't stay on Picon and hope to win. With Four million and Civilians and less than two million troops to protect them the Generals had decided to abandon Picon with the newly secured ships and retreat to a small asteroid field near Aerilon.

ORBIT OF PICON

The ship shook violently as another missile hit. The fast attack frigates were ganging up on two of the baseships that were damaged by their opening attack. The ships smaller main batteries were the only thing they had that could damage the baseships. But a dozen frigates were more than enough to even the odds against the already damaged baseships. In less than three minutes both were gone. Only five Basestars remained over the colony. Vipers were flying all around the battlespace guns blazing, blowing apart Raiders by the dozens. The Vipers were mainly focused on keeping the raiders from bunching up and gaining numerical superiority. In a one on one fight, the Colonial Viper was the better fighter, and in the hands of an experienced pilot they could win three to one no problem. Squadron on squadron engagement the colonials had the advantage. It was only when the Cylons had four to one or more odds against them did the Vipers start to take heavy casualties.

Lt Marissa Stas and Lt Jessica Brookes flew their vipers side by side covering each other sixes and blasting apart raiders by the dozens. The pilots performing the most difficult attack they knew, yet also the only one ever created that had almost no practical counterattack that could be used effectively against it. The pilots had practiced in the simulators for hours on end. Yet the tide was turning against the pilots as more and more enemy raiders came into the fight. The Raptors had not escaped unscathed, thirteen had been destroyed with four more heavily damaged. The remaining four baseships were finally committing their fighters to the fight after ten minutes. Another just having been finished off by the main batteries of the Therion. The Cylon transports had been devastated in the all-out attack, losing over half their number in the last ten minutes. The leading fighter formations had been taken out by the massive nuclear assault. The fighters from the rear ships were only now getting into the fight, ten minutes in. The Therion itself was fighting two baseships while the Fast attack frigates focused on the other two.

COLONIAL FIFTH FLEET

The CO of the Battlestar Heliopolis looked at his tactical officer with eyes wide in shock. He knew the remnants of the fleet would launch a counter attack eventually, he just didn't expect it to be so massive. Over two hundred nukes had detonated in orbit over Picon, another twenty at Caprica. The Cylons were taking a beating according to his raptor scouts that had been at the colonies since they had arrived back in the Cyrannus system. "XO jump the ship to Picon have Strike groups four and three come with us. One and two head to Caprica. Strike Group Five is to stay here and guard the non-combat ships with the civies and lighter armed ships. Let's kick some ass Colonel" Said the legendary Admiral Willington. The crew hurriedly went about to carry out his orders and prep the ship for combat. Ten Battlestars were now preparing to jump to Picon.

In each strike group were five colonial battlestars of varying class, assigned to each battlestar were four Brenton class or Zeta class cruisers. Eight more destroyers supported the cruisers with twelve Venir fast attack frigates being assigned to fighter coverage and missile interdiction. A Strike group typically consisted of Five battlestar groups. Depending on what fleet you were in the number of escorts ships dropped considerably or in the case of the First Fleet, escort ships weren't assigned to the Battlestars but rather to the planets themselves or to the moons. The battlestars were the response force in the First Fleet.

HOSPITAL SHIP COMFORT NEAR SAGATTARION

Commander Amy Barnes listened as her XO reported the nuclear detonations over Caprica and Picon. She was shocked at the amount of destruction one ship could cause. She had known the battlestars were extremely powerful but she never would have guessed one could be capable of taking out Ten baseships in one blow. A tear started to swell in her eye as she heard her XO say more detonations were taking place. This battle would last a long time.

BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC

Captain Paige Terrence awoke with the alarms blaring and the crew rushing to get to their new action stations. While they had been aboard the ship for just under three days, the departments were mostly organized and the crew had been assigned stations and quarters in less than ten hours. She tried to sit up but the pain in her wrist and leg became too great. She was beyond exhausted at this point. Commander Sammie Tanner was waiting for her new XO to report the status of the ship. Nuclear detonations had been picked up at both Caprica and Picon, meaning a fleet counter attack was under way. She intended to join it. "All decks report Condition one is set, ship reports ready to jump ma'am" Said her XO with the voice of an old warrior used to saying it over and over. "Jump us to Caprica!" Said Tanner as the ship jumped.

CAPRICA

The Zeus' opening assault had taken out three of the baseships. The other two had managed to intercept the nukes that had been bound for them. The cruisers had immediately moved to engage in close quarters combat with the Baseships, preventing them from using a retaliatory nuclear salvo for fear of destroying themselves in the process. The Zeus launched its fighter wing and Raptors with heavy ordnance as the Great War ship went directly between the two enemy capital ships guns blazing. Aboard the Zeus Commander McNamara looked at the Dradis and felt his heart sink. Two Hundred and Fifty more dradis contacts appeared on dradis. The Zeus was a formidable ship but even it couldn't defeat that many baseships on its own. When they changed from red to green and the word changed from 'unknown' to 'Colonial battlestar' his face was a mixture of shock and joy. The fleet immediately began to launch vipers and raptors to assist and began to fire at the two remaining baseships. "Tactical identify those ships!"

"Sir colonial battlestars are squawking mode three, friendly forces confirmed, transponders read as battlestars Acheron, Poseidon, Trinity, Aquarius, Hood, Daedalus, Valiant, Orion, Athena, and the Nexus. Including cruisers and destroyers sir " Reported his Tactical officer as he looked up in shock.

"I'll be damned" Was all the he could say. A minute later another red blip appeared only to change again from red to green and say 'Colonial Battlestar'. The Acheron , Pacifica, Nexus Hood and the Olympic began to pound the baseships closest to them with heavy weapons fire at an increasingly deadly rate. Captain Paige Terrence grabbed onto the edge of her bed with her good hand as the ship shook from another explosion. Her mind was going through the endless possibilities as to what was going on.

PICON

The Therion was now heavily engaged in combat against the remaining four baseships, having destroyed two more after they had jumped in with a nuclear strike. Missile after missile struck the massive ship. The space above the planet was lit up with explosions as the battle continued.

THERION

"Dradis! Contact! Two hundred and Fifty new contacts just jumped into weapons range!" Commander Riggs felt his heart sink as red dots filled the screen. His mouth fell open in disbelief, as all of them changed to green representing ten Colonial battlestars, forty heavy cruisers and 200 other colonial military vessels who were all now engaged in combat with the cylons.

"Helms! Left full! Order starboard batteries to focus on the enemy troop transports. Contact Vipers tell them to plow the road!" Said Riggs as he saw another Baseship blink out of existence. Lieutenant Marissa " Butterfly" Stas smiled from ear to ear as she lined her viper up for the shot. "Yeah, ha-ha! God damn that was nice!" she said as she wiped out another raider. This was her thirtieth kill inside of an hour. She maneuvered her viper to cover her wingman as she lined up on a heavy raider. She silently thought to herself, as she watched her wingman waste the heavy raider, that combat from the seat of a viper was amazing.

"Firefly tally two right four low and three"

"Roger I got em, firing" They both fired at the same time wasting the two unsuspecting raiders.

She lined up her viper on another raider pulling up on the stick bringing her vipers nose up as the raider maneuvered and let off a quick ten round burst. Her rounds struck the raiders dead center and blew it apart.

"Nice shooting babe" She heard her wingmate say over the wireless. For most of the fight her mind had been blank. She had tried to focus on nothing but the fight but the mental exhaustion of combat had caught her unprepared after nearly an hour of maneuvering and engagement.

CAPRICA

The Zeus was firing rapidly into the baseship as another missile impacted the flight pod. Vipers flew in every direction, guns blazing into the fray with a renewed vigor at seeing more survivors. The Acheron was in front of the Zeus firing half of her gun turrets towards the baseship in front of her, and the other half towards the baseships slugging it out with the Zeus. The Olympic had committed her Vipers and Raptors into the fight and was maneuvering to take the lead baseship while the cruisers laid down a flak field to protect her from missile hits. The other battlestars were pouring fire into the remaining baseships as they pulled away to establish a defensive formation around the planet. Captain Paige Terrence listened to the sound of the KEW's as they fired. She knew the ship was heavily engaged, it was obvious by the seemingly endless and steady stream of missiles that kept hitting the ships armor. The Mercury's however had been built to take a lot of punishment. There were small Meter wide gaps in between her outer and inner armor to dissipate the explosion thus reducing the damage to the ships interior. The Guns were firing at twice the rate of fire as during the first war and the ship itself was moving and firing at an incredible rate. She gripped the rail of her hospital bed with her good hand as another explosion shook the ship, silently wishing to herself that she could be in the CIC where she belonged. Lieutenant Jacob Stark listened as the ship fired round after round into the cylons. He learned that he loved to hear the massive gun turrets firing. He smiled every time they did. Yet every now and then his mind would wander to Paige Terrence in the sickbay. Shaking his head he focused on the Tactical battle net as reports came in from his few Marines aboard.

ZEUS

Thomas McNamara kept his face clear of emotions even as the crew burst into cheers and shouts of joy, as the last baseship succumbed to the ferocious amount of firepower that ten battlestars had unleashed on it. The last remaining Raiders jumped away leaving the ten Battlestars and their escorts as the last ships in orbit of Caprica. Commander Thomas McNamara began to plan for their attack on Aerilon. Intelligence provided by the Fifth fleet unit confirmed only five baseships per world. Why the thirty other baseships in the system that weren't at Picon weren't launching a counterattack on his ships was lost to him, but he intended to take advantage of the cylons grievous mistake.

"Sir Admiral Peters is ordering us to prep for jump to Aerilon. We are to take position next to the Athena sir"

"Very well helmsman move us into positon. XO make the ship ready for combat jump" Ordered McNamara as he let a smile form on his face.

"Yes sir. Feels damn good to be going on the offensive sir" Said his XO

"Indeed it does Colonel. Let's make these frakkers pay" He replied as he narrowed his eyes at the dradis console.

PICON

Commander Jason Riggs looked at the Dradis screen and was relieved to see only debris and Friendly ships. Fifteen Battlestars surrounded the Therion, with five hundred and seventy six other military vessels. The fifth fleet had arrived in full. Leaving behind a large number of ships to guard their support ships and civilian vessels. Several other surviving ships had jumped in. All were now pointed outwards to repel any potential Cylon counterattack. Raptors had landed on the surface and they now knew where the Marines and Army were headed; a small asteroid field near Aerilon. This was a problem due to the Zeus' assault on Aerilon that only now was beginning. The Fifth fleet sent sixteen more heavy cruisers to assist. With thirty other fast attack frigates headed in for a rear attack. Riggs wasn't worried as ten battlestars would easily take out five baseships with little effort. The battle lasted for less than an hour with Aerilon being retaken as well.

The Zeus returned to Picon. Making that sixteen battlestars now over Picon, with Two at Caprica and twelve more at Aerilon. With Picon and Caprica along with outlying Aerilon now in the hands of the Colonial Remnants, Riggs knew that it was just a matter of time until they came back, spaced out, in attack formation and ready to fight. He considered ordering an attack on the other colonies, but that decision rested now with Admiral Willington aboard the Heliopolis. Admirals Ganes and Peters had command over Aerilon and Caprica. For now Admiral Willington had ordered the first Strike group to return to Caprica making it seven battlestars there with Second Strike group at Aerilon with seven battlestars as well. The rest of the fifth fleet's forces had jumped to Picon and to the Comfort. Hundreds of civilian ships were jumping in to both Caprica and Picon after the Therion had sent a message in the clear saying Caprica and Picon had been retaken. The Cylons had been systematically hunting down the Military forces that had survived. Not yet focusing on finding the civilian ships that had escaped also. All were being referred to the Comfort's location, for rendezvous and medical treatment and for the protection of the fifth fleets destroyers and cruisers that had stayed behind to protect them. Some were even landing on the surface and picking up survivors in the mountainous regions. Carefully avoiding the massive POW camps that had been built which were guarded by ant-air and ground assets. Even some ships the cylons had captured were being brought on line and used to evacuate the four Marine Divisions that had held Delphi and the other fifty thousand Marines and two million Civilians they had fought to defend. The ships of the First strike group started an orbital bombardment to push the Cylons back. They didn't have the ground troops to take the POW camps so Admiral Ganes had made the tough call and ordered the evacuation. Forty seven other military vessels none combat capable except for basic defenses, jumped in ranging from fleet fast combat support to Ammunition replenishment, and manufacturing supply ships to hospital ships, communications ships, fleet intelligence vessels, four mobile dry docks, and about seventeen other replenishment and supply vessels. Two more mercury class hospitals ships showed up after an hour of recovery operations. All were being referred to the Comfort and ever growing refuge fleet she guarded. Most of the Military forces on the surface of Picon had been evacuated along with a large civilian contingent. However over a million people were still left behind.

Suddenly Lt. Forsen shouted "Dradis contact, it's the cylons! Twenty four baseships three minutes to weapons range" 'Why twenty four, there no match for sixteen battlestars and almost four hundred other military ships' thought Riggs as he looked at the Dradis. It made sense to him as another twenty four jumped in behind them. They had sent an additional detachment of destroyers and cruisers back to the fall back point to guard the ever growing refugee fleet now assembling.

"Forty eight baseships, that's more than our intel said were left" Said Colonel Branson as he looked at his commander

"We were wrong"

"Sir signal from the flagship, the admirals ordering all ships to establish a battle line at Phase line Golf. He wants to put some distance between the cylons and Picon."

"Acknowledge the orders, have the Buckley and Remus form up on us forty Klicks apart, have four crusiers on each side of us, destroyers above and below. Standard battle line" Three Battlestars and half of the 34 remaining cruisers cruisers made a rapid speed run to the rear in an attempt to protect the unarmed transports still lifting off and evacuating. The Therion's vipers reacted immediately positioning themselves in between the civilian's ships and the Cylons. The Battlestars spread out near the equator and launched their entire fighter compliment to help protect the Army and Marine Corps elements below while the other ships held off the Cylons. Seventeen cruisers all damaged to one degree or another, moved in to a standard V-attacking formation headed for the lead ships of the cylon formation ahead of the main fleet. They launched missile barrages and momentarily distracted the cylons while the fleet moved into position and then scattered to the rear of the formation as the fleet formed up behind them. The battlestars staggered themselves in a walled pentagon formation facing the cylons. The battlestars were each spaced twenty klicks part along the sides of the pentagon formation. Ten battlestars formed the outer ring with the remaining three in the dead center connecting the two sides. The battlestar Titan made up the center of the formation. Spaced equally throughout the pentagonal formation were the cruisers, destroyers and fast attack frigates. They were oriented to their broadsides facing the enemy establishing fields of fire and massive flak fields to cover the battlestars who were oriented with their main batteries facing towards the enemy. In seconds the two sides clashed. A thousand missiles raced across the open space towards the colonial fleet which returned fire instantly. The space between the two opposing fleets was no man's land to any small craft. The Colonial defensive flak screen was nearly impenetrable. With small narrow corridors for outgoing missiles opening for seconds before the triple A batteries shifted their fire to shore them up again. Not a single missile from the Cylons first barrage made it through. The Battlestars engaged with their main batteries and sent forth dozens of high explosive rounds. The baseships began maneuvering however and only half the rounds struck their targets. Still the rounds struck, and the Cylon fleet began to suffer huge amounts of damage. At this range only the Battlestars and Cruisers could accurately and consistently engage. Meaning thirteen battlestars and seventeen cruisers were lashing out with their KEWs striking the cylons as fast as they could. The Colonials were concentrating their fire on the more heavily damaged and less maneuverable baseships in an attempt to reduce the cylons numbers. The remaining forty destroyers and eighty fast attack frigates were providing a massive defensive flak field. The cruisers were using their topside KEWs with their triple A batteries augmenting the flak field. The Cylons knew that if they didn't break the Colonial defensive perimeter they would slowly be defeated through accumulated damage from the Colonials long range weapon systems. Within ten minutes two baseships had already been destroyed. The Defensive fire from the cruisers and destroyers was too thick for the cylons to take out the battlestars. They just couldn't cause enough damage quick enough. Desperately the Cylons attempted to space themselves out to get better firing solutions from the sides of the walled pentagonal death screen facing them. Only to find themselves come under missile barrages from the twenty odd Colonial Missile corvettes that dodged in and out from behind the Pentagon formation. The missile corvettes were the size of Battlestars with no flight pods and only forward facing KEWs on the flight pod and under the main hull. Their main weapon was their massive armories of missiles. Each Ship carried over six thousand Lightning and Thunder class Anti-ship missiles. The class of missiles had been designed and created in tandem with each other, with Thunder missiles designed to scrape away at the armor of a ship and the lightning missiles designed to punch through the soft interior and detonate their high explosive fragmentary warhead. The missile was designed to cause multi-deck and compartment breaches and to start huge fires. The Cylons were suffering heavily from the well-aimed missiles that were coated with a special material that made them difficult to detect on dradis. In the midst of a battle they became almost impossible to detect. After the missile attack, then the battlestars themselves opened up with their starboard and port side batteries and their own flak fields. Which on their own were hard enough to defeat. Being augmented by the Cruisers, destroyers and fast attack frigates made them almost impenetrable as the reserve ships behind the formation made another wall beside the battlestars to protect them. If necessary ten or more fast attack frigates and a group of Heavy defenders would break off and attack the lone baseships attempting to break away and force it back. The Heavy defenders were designed to be launched from battlestars and Expeditionary Fighter Carriers. They were four times the size of a Raptor with four M767 triple barrel gun mounts mounted two dorsal and two ventral with a Six Barrel M727 mounted under the nose of the ship. She was slower than the Vipers or Raptors she supported but she made up for it with firepower. The Defenders were designed to even the odds against the raider hordes as the vipers could use them as mobile cover and support.

Four more baseships were destroyed with each ship reporting damage as the battle continued for another hour. The Cylons were now down to thirty eight baseships. The Colonials had firepower superiority but they were trying to minimize their losses as much as they could. The Cylons attempted to launch nukes but they were shot down before they got anywhere close enough to cause any damage. The Battle line was holding and slowly eating away at the cylons.

The Vipers and Raiders had been dogfighting for hours and the cylons knew the colonial vipers were winning. The raiders were being wiped out at a rate of ten to one. The Cylons knew they were losing and they were getting desperate. As the vipers landed to refuel and rearm the pilots gulped down water and ate what little food they could before they got back in the fight. The Cylons had lost ten baseships so far and the Cylons knew if they lost ten more the Colonials would break formation and engage in close range combat. Thirteen battlestars was just over two to one odds and with their support ships the Cylons would be crushed. The Colonials would get in close enough to even use their triple A against them. Something the Cylons knew they couldn't survive. While they would undoubtedly be able to inflict some amount of damage and destroy a few ships. They knew they would quickly be decimated by the colonial's superior firepower.

"Gods this is intense, I wonder how much longer it's gonna be before we can actually break the line and really engage" Said Jessica Brookes as she wiped sweat from her face and took a huge gulp of water as the deckhands refueled and rearmed her viper.

"I don't know but I'm frakking exhausted" Said another of her fellow pilots as he drank a cup of coffee to stay awake.

"Launch in five minutes people" Shouted their squadron commander. The Squadrons were rotating threw to be rearmed and refueled. It seemed the Cylons were holding their fighters back now and were only committing a squadron here or there just to keep the vipers busy. Lt Lane didn't mind it thou, he claimed twenty two kills so far. Jessica had shot him down with Twenty four and Marissa with thirty. It amazed her at how many raiders they were taking out. But she wasn't going to complain. She and the BattleAxes were indeed that good. They had only lost three of their own so far and they were still kicking ass. Lt Lane had lost his wingman and was now flying with her and Butterfly.

"Alright Gator lets go back out there and kick some more ass" She said as she pulled him up

"Yeah I got your six girl" He said as he began to head for his viper.

"Negative Gator, her six is all mine" Marissa said as she slapped her ass from behind and gave her a wink. Jessica laughed and stuck her tongue out at her and winked back.

"Well I guess that just means I got both your sixes"

"Only in your dreams gator" She replied as she put her helmet on and had it secured by the deckhand. Within two minutes she was back out into the fight.

The Cylons had lost fourteen baseships to the colonial battlestars now and only eighteen fast attack frigates had been forced to withdraw along with three cruisers, eight destroyers and three more missile corvettes. Only thirty Basestars remained. The Cylons knew that once the Colonials had withered them down enough they would close ranks and finish them off. They had one ace left up their sleeve and now was the time to use it. The Cylons recalled their raiders and intensified their rate of fire for a few minutes hoping to get a few nukes through the defensive fire of the colonials. One actually managed to and detonated taking two destroyers and damaging a cruiser with it. The Cylons poured fire through the hole that opened up concentrating their fire on the battlestar Heliopolis and Apollo. Quickly the battlestars switched their KEWS to flak fire and tried to plug the hole. A couple of cruisers and defenders from the side wall moved into to replace their now fallen brothers. It took only four minutes for the defensive perimeter to be sealed back up again. The Cylons were beginning to get low on missiles and especially nukes.

The viper flew in defensive formations behind and to the side of the formation.

"CAG this is Star, I got a formation of three hundred raiders on dradis directly behind the baseships. Their spinning up their FTL Drives and im detecting radiological signatures from some of them.

"Frak they're gonna jump in the middle of the fleet"

"This is Heliopolis actual to all ships break off the battle line and engage in ship to ship combat now. Close distance to the baseships before those raiders jump into the middle of our fleet with those nukes"

Collectively the fleet suddenly broke formation with the battlestars charging ahead at full speed. Thirty seconds later the Raiders jumped directly behind the fleet. Missiles spewed out from the raiders. The fleet was still too close together. But not nearly as close as it had been. Seven cruisers of the remaining thirteen in the fight were destroyed instantly. Seventeen destroyers were destroyed and fifteen more too heavily damaged to continue to fight and were ordered out. Every ship took hits from several missiles. A nuke flew into the flight pod of the battlestar Artemis and detonated inside. The result was horrifying. The flight pod blew out from the ship in a hundred pieces. Secondary explosions then traveled up and down the hull destroying the battlestar from within. Two other battlestars were hit with eight nukes a piece and lost. Admiral Willington looked at the Dradis screen as another battlestar and a dozen other ships were destroyed. The Heliopolis had taken two nukes to the stern and had taken severe damage along with numerous other battlestars. The thirteen battlestars that had begun this fight had now been reduced to nine. With three more still ten minutes away at Picon holding off the Cylons from destroying the Marines and Army and protecting the civilians. Willington knew if he ordered those ships to join the battle here he would be leaving the people assembled at the evac points to die.

"Sir we've just lost two more cruisers with all hands sir" Riggs just sighed and ordered SAR raptors to be dispatched. The two cruisers were lost to heavy missile fire from the baseships after they launched a nuclear salvo and took them out. The fleet was now heavily damaged and closing the distance to the Cylons fleet rapidly. The Battlestar Titan had already destroyed two baseships with its massive amount of weapon batteries along her four flight pods and on her dorsal and ventral hulls. But now the Cylons were focusing their fire on the colossal ship and she was taking heavy damage. Two more battlestars took another four nukes apiece and were destroyed with all hands. Now only seven battlestars were still engaging the now twenty one remaining baseships. The Colonial Fleet had lost half of its fighting strength inside of ten minutes. They no longer had fire superiority

"We collapsed the battle line too soon" He said allowed to his XO

"Gods Damn it!

"Sir we can't keep taking hits like this" Said Lt Forsen as she steadied herself after another missile hit.

"Multiple hull breaches on several decks"

"Port battery twelve is out of action"

"Vipers report another wave of missiles inbound"

"Sir the battle line has collapsed, Cylons are capitalizing on our perimeter breaches. We're not gonna last much longer like this. Our escorts are trying to cover us but without much success. The cylons are deliberately concentrating their fire on us."

The reports kept coming in one after the other. The Therion and all the other battlestars were taking damage. Their guns hadn't stopped firing since the first minute, ammo was running low and pilots were showing fatigue.

"Sir the Heliopolis just took two nukes amidships. We no longer have wireless contact with the flagship." reported the exhausted Lt Forsen. Six hours of combat had left them exhausted.

"CAG reports the Heliopolis is lost sir. They're in an uncontrolled spin and taking heavy fire and returning none sir." Stated Lt. Forsen with a worried look on her face. "Contact the Universal and Nexus tell them to focus their fire on baseships echo 28 and 17. We have to even the odds. Get SAR to the Heliopolis and inform all other ships that I am assuming command."

There were now only twenty baseships left for the Seventy five remaining colonial warships. Only Battlestars and Cruisers were designed to go toe to toe with Cylon Capital ships. The Destroyers could take on a couple of baseships if they had the numbers but that was usually meant to be at a minimum of four to one. And they would take significant damage doing it. For the Frigates which were only half the size of the destroyers at only 481 meters long. Their primary mission was anti-missile and fighter defense. For a small hull, she was armed to the teeth with over a hundred 120mm Gun batteries and fourteen missile tubes that could launch over three hundred missiles in less than three minutes. The Cruisers were designed to work in tandem with the battlestars being only a couple hundred meters smaller on average they carried the same devastating Kinetic energy weapons as the battlestars along the sides of her hull. The cruisers carried only two squadrons of Vipers which launched from the underside of the ship and landed in a hanger bay that run underneath the ship, much like a flight pod had been dug into the bottom of the hull. Their armor on average wasn't as thick the battlestars which left them at a slight disadvantage.

"Sir… Heliopolis just took four more nukes…. She's gone sir…. All hands lost." Reported Lt Forsen with tears in her eyes. Four thousand lives had just been lost, all represented by the green icon on the screen Jason Riggs could only stare at her his mouth wide open as he looked down. The whole CIC crew was now looking at their commander. A missile hit on the flight pod drew them all back to the fight. Admiral James Willington was lost with the Heliopolis

"ETA to the last civilian is away?" asked Riggs as the damage to each ship grew immensely. Fourteen cruisers had been destroyed or had had to retreat due to damage. They had lost forty three fast attack frigates as well as twenty one destroyers to the six hour long battle, most in the last twenty minutes. The loss of now seven battlestars was devastating. Four thousand and seventy two civilian vessels of all different size had managed to jump away from the surface of the planet and despite the number of vipers in the air some had been lost to the raiders.

"Ten minutes sir and all civilian ships are now taking fire from the cylons sir. Vipers and what fast attack frigates that are left and still in the fight are moving to intercept." reported Lt Forsen.

They just had to buy a little more time. "Radiological alarm! Inbound nuke! Brace for impact!" Shouted Lt Forsen as the missile got closer.

"Oh God" said Sean Branson as he was thrown to the deck. The weapons officer was killed when he fell and broke his neck. Lt Forsen was again knocked unconscious and suffered a severe abrasion on her left side. Commander Riggs was severely wounded after the Dradis monitor exploded due to a power surge and showered him with debris.

"Comms! Get a flash message to the Zeus tell Commander McNamara to take command. Tell our vipers to come aboard and bring back as many other friendly fighters as possible. Spin up the FTL drives we have to go now. We're not gonna last much longer!" Shouted the XO as a Marine Medic tended to the wounded.

The nuke had detonated on their starboard flight pod and opened up several sections to space. The resulting power surge had locked their weapon batteries into position.

ZEUS

"Sir Signal from the Therion. We are to take command and direct the fallback of all Colonial forces to the rendezvous point. Therion is no longer combat effective. Nuclear detonation against their starboard flight pod has crippled their starboard batteries and opened several sections to space. Therion is retreating sir"

"Very well acknowledge recite of orders. All Units are to fall back to Phase line alpha, Cruisers and corvettes are to launch missile barrage to suppress the cylons in waves every sixty seconds, set for high explosive proximity detonations. All other ships are to engage full auto fire close range, recover all vipers and raptors. Order what vipers we cant take aboard to head for the Carriers. They're behind the other battlestars." He said pausing to take a breath.

"Prep for nuclear strike as soon as all units are at the alpha line" Ordered McNamara as the Zeus turned and fired a full broadside at a baseship, destroying it. Only seventeen baseships remained for the now ten combat effective battlestars over Picon. The Colonial fleet disengaged after firing a massive missile and ordnance barrage and began a speed run. Six battlestars, Two crusiers, Forty three fast attack frigates, and over two dozen defenders raced at their best possible speed back towards Picon and the other fleet units spaced throughout the planet trying to protect the civilians. The remaining three battlestars moved towards the Alpha line to reinforce their fellow colonials.

In five minutes the last destroyer made it to the alpha line. "Sir all ships have reached the alpha line, last civilian ship will jump in two minutes." Reported the Zeus' Tactical officer.

"Cylons weapons range?" asked McNamara as he watched the red blips draw closer to the green line that had been formed. "Four minutes until weapons range sir" Their speed run had bought them time. Initially they had pushed the cylons back as far away from the civilians as possible in order to put distance from the cylons and civilians while at the same time giving them freedom of maneuver when they decided to break off the battle line and engage in ship to ship combat. It had paid off by buying them more time. The battle had lasted nearly six hours, with heavy casualties on both sides.

"Prepare to recover our vipers and Raptors, all ships stand by to jump on my command. Standby on warheads one through twenty"

"Yes sir, sir our vipers are being brought down to the hanger bay as fast as they can can and more vipers are landing. We'll be able to get them all sir but barely." McNamara nodded, he knew over three thousand Pilots had lost their homes today, but most of them had been taken out in the nukes. Only half of the viper wings from the destroyed battlestars and cruisers had survived.

"Sir the cylons have halted their advance"

"What?" He asked as his xo smiled.

"They're afraid. Nine battlestars and nineteen cruisers, they can't beat us and they know it" His XO Colonel Jacob Woods said. He and the entire crew were exhausted.

"Were too far out to launch our nukes. They would be shot down before we even got close." He said as he looked at the dradis again.

"They're not just gonna let us go Tom" Said Colonel Woods as he looked at him

"They're waiting for reinforcements" He said as looked down.

"Have we received word from Caprica or Aerilon?" He asked his Comm officer.

"Yes sir, they each reported a force of five baseships jumping. Engagement didn't last long at either world sir. Minimum casualties and evacuation of military forces off the surface near Delphi along with civilians was completed an hour ago. We haven't been able to locate many units on Aerilon sir. It's likely they were taken out with nukes due to the landscape of the planet"

"Would have been easy as hell for the cylons to wipe them out. Most of the planet is farmlands and the major military bases are few and far in between."

"We can still get people off of Caprica thou. Order all ships that didn't engage in the main battle to jump to Caprica, dispatch a raptor to Aerilon. Tell Admiral Ganes Picon has returned to Cylon control. As soon as the last Civilian ship away, order the fleet to withdraw."

"Yes sir"

Ten minutes later within thirty seconds of each other the battered colonial fleet jumped away.

CAPRICA 2 HOURS LATER

General Stanley Griggs looked out at the stars and saw them littered with debris. Most of it was Cylon but fourteen hours ago it had been mostly Colonial. The Heliopolis had been destroyed, with it Admiral James Willington. The fleet over Caprica was getting ready to jump to the rally point. It was only a matter of time before the cylons reorganized and attacked at Caprica too. The fleet had sustained heavy losses at Picon. The Mercury Class Olympic had sustained moderate Damage and had been taken into one of the Mobile Dry-docks of the Fifth Fleet. The Therion itself had taken severe Damage and was now in the Venturous being repaired. Fourteen thousand civilian ships had made the rendezvous carrying over twelve million civilians. General Griggs couldn't believe the massive battles he had witnessed over the last week. He looked out at his Marines loading into transports to head to the rendezvous. He grinned knowing his Marines would live to fight another day. His Shuttle was the last to leave the surface of Caprica.

THERION 1 HOUR AFTER THE RETREAT

With most of the ship heavily damaged the DC teams were the only people on the ship. The crew of the Therion were in quarters aboard the Venturous. The Therion would be repaired as fast the crews could work, but it was easier if the crew wasn't in the way. The temporary quarters aboard the Venturous were designed to be large and comforting, the exact opposite to a battlestars. The Therion's crew would enjoy themselves while aboard. The Venturous was one of the best mobile dry-docks in the fleet. She was also the largest, which was why the Universal was also inside the huge dry-dock. Lt Amy Forsen was still unconscious after the nuke had detonated on the starboard flight pod killing over three hundred of the crew. She and eight hundred other crew members would remain in sickbay for days as a result of their concussions. She would stay asleep for the next two days.

WARDROOM 10 DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK 2 DAYS AFTER THE SECOND BATTLE OF PICON

Commander Jason Riggs still wounded but once again able to stand on his own looked on as Rear Admiral Scott Keyes spoke. Keyes had been aboard the Mercury which had jumped into the battle at Aerilon. Unfortunately the ships there hadn't been able to assist the battle at Picon as they had been forced to deal with raider feints and decoys and a group of baseships themselves. But now with Twenty four battlestars, eighty five cruisers and four hundred and fifty five other combat arms ships they could all rest easy knowing the heaviest fighting was more than likely over. They couldn't have been more wrong. "…it's by my order and the approval of the New Chief of staff of the Colonial fleet, that I'm Promoting Commander Riggs and McNamara to the rank of Rear Admiral effectively immediately. Now for the rest of you, damn fine job in keeping your ships intact and your crews alive, especially you Commander Tanner. What your Marines did to get the Olympic was damn fine work. Give them my compliments. Great Job getting her into the fight. The Comfort will take your wounded and transfer those that have recovered to you. Contact General Griggs and get him to give you some Marines."

"Yes Sir, I'll get with General Griggs right away." Said Commander Sammie Tanner as she saluted and left.

"Commander Barnes, you and your crew did an exceptional job. You demonstrated outstanding leadership during those chaotic first days and your crew and ship are a testament to that. Be proud of yourself commander" Barnes smiled and simply nodded her head, she was at a loss for words.

"I wanted to order the Marines to go back to that graveyard but the Cylons have a couple of baseships over it now." Said Riggs as he shook his head.

"We have the personnel to man them, although most of them aren't in any shape to be on active duty right now" Said McNamara. The fleets medical units had been overwhelmed with the six hundred thousand freed prisoners. Most of the civilians had just been hungry and tired.

"Those people will be back on their feet soon enough" Said Keyes

"Now we need to discuss these human form cylons" Said Admiral Ganes as he pressed a button and three faces appeared.

"Our freed fellow service members report only seeing two models working in the prison camps. Called Fours and Eights."

"On the battlefield however our Marines have confirmed this individual as being a cylon as well identified as a number two"

"There's another, he's an older looking man. He tortured me for two frakking days. Same with one of my Captains on the Olympic. He made me watch via video whenever he tortured and raped her. He seemed to be the one making the decisions" Said Commander Tanner with a worried look on her face.

"We need to get a picture, can you get with a sketch artist after were done here" Said Admiral Keyes growing concerned.

"Yes sir, how many models do we think there are?" She asked while rubbing her hands together.

"We don't know. Which is why we need to find a way to screen for them" Said Admiral Riggs as he studied their faces even more

"My Marines are currently searching every ship in the fleet for these individuals. Thus far we've found four of just the ones called twos"

"My gods, it helps to explain how we got defeated so quickly in the opening attack" Said Admiral McNamara as he studied the images too.

"Indeed it does, and it raises another area of concern. Security, our arms room and key critical areas need to be guarded now. We need to arm the civilians as well. Get a police force up and running throughout the fleet."

"I have three brigades of MPs that can handle that for the time being sir" Said General Anton of the Colonial Army.

"Very well General see to it. For now we need to focus on rebuilding our stocks of ammunition and repairing our ships. Itll take another week at least for the support fleet to get our ammo supplies back up to where they need to be. We need to avoid contact with the cylons until then. Which is why we're jumping every Eight hours. Were gonna keep on that schedule for now. The Rest of you are dismissed." said the Old Admiral as he watched the assembled group of officers leave the room. He was sad yet proud of these men and women at the same time. Sad that it had taken this of all things to bring them together. Proud of what they had accomplished with the little they had.

HOSPITAL SHIP COMFORT 3 DAYS LATER

"Hey sleeping beauty. Good morning." Said Lieutenant Jacob Stark as Paige Terrence opened her eyes and looked around "What are you doing here, what happened to the Olympic?" she asked before she saw the bandage on his arm. She didn't know how long she had been out. "Broke my arm when the ship took a nuke fell pretty hard to the deck." he said with a grin "Anyways they're kind of cramped in here. So I agreed to stand until they can stabilize some of the other patients and get them to the other ships." he said pointing to the severely cramped quarters of the hospital ward. "What a sweetheart, you can sit at the end of my bed if you want, but if you touch my broken leg I'll kick your ass" she said grinning and laughing. The Marine laughed and sat down. "Doc said your leg was getting better. Said you could be back on duty in a few months. Wrist should heal inside of two months. Same time frames as my arm so I guess were stuck together." Said Stark as he handed her a glass of water. She took a sip and handed it back.

"What's wrong with that? I get to make fun of a Marine for a few months" she said as she sat up even more trying to avoid hurting her leg.

"I promise I haven't been creeping on you, there's just nowhere else to go really. You were the only familiar face so I figured I'd stick around" She gave him a small smile back and took a sip from her cup.

"So what's next?" She said as she took a deep breath

"I guess we get comfortable" He laughed and they started to talk about their lives, Past Assignments, school, their childhoods, everything. She fell asleep about three hours later. He sat down on the stool and watched her sleep for about ten minutes before heading to the ships mess hall.

Commander Amy Barnes was sitting at her desk doing paperwork approving personnel transfers to the Olympic when she heard a knock at the door.

"Enter" she said as she looked up from her desk. Her marine escort, a young corporal by the name of Corporal Erikson opened the hatch and stepped aside and in walked her husband and her two year old little girl. Amy's mouth fell open in shock as she stood up and walked towards her daughter "Mommy! Mommy!" she shouted as she grabbed her in a hug and started to cry tears of joy. "Oh My gods, I'm so glad you made it" she said as she ruffled their hair. She couldn't believe her eyes as she stared into the eyes of her daughter, were only days ago she assumed her dead. She was overjoyed. "We managed to get out of the city before the nukes fell, the Marines on Picon forced the cylons to retreat to Caprica and then the Therion launched its attack. When the baseships went up in flames, we knew the fleet was back and then the Marines all over the planet launched attacks on the cylons. The cylons got overrun and we loaded up into the army transports and jumped away." Said her Ex as he picked up a book one of her kids had knocked over. Just as she was about to say something the phone on the wall next to her bunk rang.

"Hold on" She picked up the phone as her ex-husband looked around while her daughter held on to her neck "Commander Barnes" Amy's face dropped as soon as she heard what her XO said.

"I want a clear path from the flight deck to the OR, have our best trauma doc on standby Im headed to the CIC"

"Evan ill be right back, Im sorry, Just stay here and don't touch anything."

ZEUS

Admiral Thomas McNamara was in his quarters with his CAG and XO going over viper squadron changes. Outside a group of four Marines stood guard. Two were the Admirals guards and the other two were the XOs.

"I hate the fact that I'm walking around with body guards now" Said Colonel Woods as looked at the piece of paper in front of him.

"Yeah it's a change but you're the ships XO and I can't afford to lose you" Said Tom as he signed off on more paperwork.

"Yeah you're just saying that to try and make me feel good"

"Totally" He chuckled.

Outside the two marines on guard were scanning the hallways and mostly making small talk. The Admiral suddenly opened the hatch and the group snapped to attention.

"Hey two of you go and get some chow and then come back and relive the other two. We're gonna be doing paperwork for a few more hours. Okay? Said the Admiral as he turned to walk back inside.

"Yes sir" They waited till the admiral closed the hatch. "Hey Tomlins, Derby, go get something to eat" Said Sergeant Andrews as he took up his post to the right of the Admirals quarters

"Alright well be back in thirty" Said Derby as he left. Passing by a female technician he noticed had no rank on.

'Damn fleet pukes don't know how to maintain their own standards' Derby thought as he turned down the hallway. As soon as he was out of sight the technician turned around the hallway and walked towards the admiral's quarters. The two Marines were on opposite corners. Not with in view of each other which made her mission slightly easier. The Admirals quarters were in a long hallway that curved sharply five meters past the small corridor that led to the Admirals quarters. The other Marine was standing in that hallway.

"Can I help you ma'am?" Asked Sergeant Andrews as he moved closer to her. He didn't think she was a threat. When she got within reach her movement was so fast he barely had time to register what happened before he was unconscious. She had taken him of guard and with two quick jabs and a huge push she had sent him into the wall. In less than a second she had grabbed the man's sidearm. The noise was loud enough that she heard the other marine turn around. By the time she walked around the corner she was already opening the hatch.

"Did you forget how to knock Marine?" Said the XO before he looked up and saw her. Her weapon was already leveled thou and she fired two quick rounds into the chest of Admiral McNamara. Both the CAG and XO were on the move instantly diving for the deck and moving to draw their own weapons. But she didn't even try to shoot them. She closed her eyes knowing the other Marine was about to put numerous holes in her body. As soon as she thought the thought she felt her body get rocked from the side. It felt like a small train hit her side at full speed. She was on the ground now. Looking up at the ceiling she suddenly felt searing pain in several areas and guessed the Marine had shot her at least six times. It began to get hard for her to keep her eyes open and soon she knew she would be dead.

"Call for a medic!" shouted the XO as he raced over to the Admiral. Desperately he tried to slow the bleeding from the two bullet wounds in his Admirals chest.

END OF CHAPTER ONE

COLONIAL FLEET SURVIVORS 16,678,789

TOTAL SHIPS -MILITARY

BATTLESTARS 24

CRUISERS 113

DESTROYERS 224

FRIGATES 456

FAST COMBAT SUPPORT AND REPLENISHMENT SHIPS, FOUR DIFFERENT CLASSES 36

MOBILE DRY-DOCKS 8

HOSPITAL SHIPS AND FRIGATES 43

FLEET EXPEDITONARY FIGHTER CARRIERS – 8

PATROLSTARS -56

ACADEMY TRAINING STAR 1

CORVETTES -20

GUNSTARS – 6

TENDERS AND SUPPLY TRANSPORTS 115

So redid the original story and I think it's a lot better now. Don't worry, I took a lot out and added a lot but I wanted it to flow better and to make things come together better in the end. I already know this story is going to end and have written most of it. I haven't written a story in like three years for this site but Im medically retired from my contractors work overseas and find myself with an abundance of time on my hands. More than I know what to do with. Expect an update sometime next month


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